KIEV, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - President Viktor Yushchenko will take local authorities to court over their decision to give Russian and Ukrainian equal status in their respective communities, a senior presidential administration official said Friday.
Presidential Chancellery head Anatoliy Matvyyenko said his office would lodge a complaint with the prosecutor general's office next week, and slammed prosecutors for inaction over what the central government sees as unlawful decisions.
The president has the right to repeal local executive resolutions that contradict the Constitution and national legislation, Matvyyenko said.
On April 26, the city government of Sebastopol, on the Crimean peninsula, adopted a resolution granting regional status to the Russian language on the grounds that the community's ethnic makeup is mainly Russian.
Authorities in the predominantly Russian provinces of Kharkiv and Luhansk, in the country's east, approved similar resolutions in March.
