Komi politician prevented from speaking in Komi
As reported by The Barents Observer, member of the Komi State Council from the Communist Party, Ekaterina Dyachkova, wanted to ask Senator Elena Shumilova whether she cares about preserving the Komi language and whether she continues to use it. The microphone was not turned on for her when she spoke and the speaker of the house, Sergei Usachev, made an offensive comment.
Komi State Council Deputy Elena Dyachkova was prevented from asking a question in the Komi language at a council’s meeting, when Federation Council representative Elena Shumilova made a report on her activities to the House.
Dyachkova asked the senator if she was forgetting her native tongue and whether her attitude towards the Komi people had changed. The question was asked in Komi, and the lawmaker’s microphone was turned off, but Shumilova also responded in Komi. Then, the speaker of the State Council, United Russia’s Sergei Usachev, joined the conversation.
‘Colleagues, should we go out and leave you to talk or what? Why are you doing this?’ — the speaker told Dyachkova and Shumilova. He also made a dubious remark about the council not being a ‘collective farm’ to another council member.
Ekaterina Dyachkova has told The Barents Observer that she intends to complain about the actions of the speaker to the procedures commission. Even though Komi is the second official language of the Republic of Komi, Dyachkova has her microphone switched off regularly.
