With Yanukovych now sworn in, it looks like the Ukraine nationalist's attempts to forcefully assmilate and culturally repress the large ethnic Russian population will not progress as Yuschenko would like it to. Ethnic Russians should be free to call themselves whatever they want, wherever they live. This is a fundamental right which in any modern society must be upheld with the greatest priority, and I have every faith in the Party of Regions and President Yanukovych to see to it that the legitimate rights of the people of Ukraine are upheld, minorities included.

Actually, plenty of Americans have Jewish names. oO; I went to school with a whole bunch of them, and not all of them even were Jewish! It's definitely important to preserve the Ukrainian language, but some kids' names aren't going to hamper that, even less so if the kids aren't ethnically Ukrainian.

So, let me understand.....It was OK during Soviet days to demand that Ukrainain children be named Russian (Russified) names. But now that Ukraine is independent, it is not OK for the reverse to be expected? Typical Russian viewpoint and Russian double standard. Get over it Russia, Ukraine is an INDEPENDENT nation now, it is NOT Little Russia!

My daughter, born in Germany, bears a distinctively Russian name (and surname) and nobody has ever objected. More than that, when she had just been delivered, right in the delivery room, the midwife and nurse helped me to find the most suitable spelling for her name in Latin letters to render its original pronunciation By the way why on earth does this Ukrainian official think that one should adjust his or her name to the local language of a country? In my opinion, if you are Yelena, you are not supposed to turn Helen in Great Britain, if your name is Brunhilde, you are Brunhilde everywhere, and an Australian Nick does not need to turn Nikolay when in Russia. Would she insist on Paul McCartney’s becoming Pavlo when in Ukraine? In the article it says she is a philologist. Quite an unprofessional approach for a philologist. Dear Ivan, are you sure Ukrainians were really forced to give their children Russian names? Judging by what I keep hearing from my friends of Ukrainian origin, in many places in Ukraine, especially in cities, the Ukrainian language was considered to be provincial, hence the self-inflicted “russification”. I do not think it was correct of them to regard their own language like this, however they did it. Sorry to have probably hurt your feelings.