Russian students of UTM complain of discrimination

The League of Russian Youth of Moldova Friday protest against the closure of Russian-language groups at the Technical University of Moldova (UTM), seeking the dismissal of Minister of Education Leonid Bujor. The UTM rector’s office denies the accusations and says no Russian-language group was closed or merged with a Romanian-language one, Info-Prim Neo reports. The League’s head Igor Tuleantsev said they protested against the discrimination of the students who speak Russian. According to him, a Russian-language group was closed at the UTM’s faculty of informatics, computers and microelectronics. The students were told they will attend the courses taught in Romanian, together with the other students. “The minister of education does not understand what’s happening in our society. We, the Russians, will not allow discrimination. These students are forced to do courses taught in Romanian, not Moldovan, which is the state language of Moldova, as stipulated in the Constitution,” Igor Tuleantsev said. Asked how many Russian-language groups were closed or merged this academic year, Tuleantsev said he does not know exactly, but found out about this from the press. Some of the protesters came to the event with masks. They said they are students of the UTM and do not want to be expelled. Most of those who took part in the protest were high school students. They said they will fight for maintaining Russian in education institutions. Asked to comment on the situation, UTM first deputy rector Petru Todos said no Russian-language group was closed. He explained that the number of Russian students at some of the faculties was too low to form a Russian-language group. “The students could choose one of the related faculties. Some of them were transferred to the faculty of their choice, but their status was kept,” said Todos. Petru Todos also said that some of the subjects are taught to Russian-language groups in Romanian, under an ordinance made by the Ministry of Education in 1995. It is designed to improve the process of studying Romanian by the other-language speaking population of Moldova.