KIEV, Sept. 2 – Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych on Wednesday vowed to make the Russian language the second state language in Ukraine - a highly sensitive and controversial issue with many Ukrainians - after winning the presidency.

The plan, which is getting support among Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine, is vehemently rejected by the rest of the country and may eventually backfire by mobilizing undecided voters against Yanukovych.

“I will make everything possible to make the Russian language the second state language,” Yanukovych said an interview with a local television in Odessa. “The [future] president should sign this law by this hand,” he said raising his right hand holding a pen.

Yanukovych, the frontrunner in the upcoming presidential election, would probably defeat Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Parliamentary Speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk – the two of his most likely rivals - in the runoff, according to recent opinion polls.

But picking up the issue of language, a divisive issue in Ukraine, Yanukovych has been trying to run his campaign in the same pro-Russian course that he had used in November 2004.

This strategy may backfire, however, by turning many voters in swing central regions, which are essential for the victory, against Yanukovych, which may cause him loosing the election just like he did in 2004, analysts said.

“By making this statement, Yanukovych is choosing the strategy he had used in the 2004 campaign,” Oleksiy Haran, a Kiev-based political scientist, said. “From attempting to become the national leader, he has downgraded to being a representative of a part of the country.”

“By doing so, he is making the best present possible to his rivals by mobilizing voters” in western and central regions of Ukraine, Yanukovych said. “I wonder who I advising him on this strategy?”

Yanukovych made the statement in Odessa, a city that has many Russian-speaking voters.

Tymoshenko, who recently in Lviv addressed the World Ukrainian Congress, an organization uniting Ukrainian diaspora around the globe, assured the voters that Ukrainian must remain the only state language in Ukraine.

“This is how different we are,” Yanukovych said.

The issue of language is sensitive in Ukraine, which under the Moscow rule has been for centuries experiencing forcible introduction of the Russian language across the country.

This, as well as forcible migration of people from Russia to Ukraine during the Stalin regime, has weakened the use of the Ukrainian language.

The introduction of Russian as the second state language would allow its use in the central and local governments and educational institutions, further weakening the Ukrainian language.

Yanukovych also said the approval of the bill that introduces Russian language as the state language requires approval by 226 votes in the 450-seat.

However, the change needs to be introduced in the constitution, which effectively requires the approval of the bill by 300 votes, which may make the issue more difficult. (tl/ez)