Probably not the top Russian political news on everyone's radar:
The nationalist Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky has called for the letter Ы (yes, it's a single letter) to be expunged from the Russian alphabet, on the grounds that it is a "nasty, Asiatic" import.
Quote:
"Only animals make this sound, 'ы- ы,'" he said.
...
"Ы" doesn't exist in any other European language, argued Zhirinovsky. "This primitive, Asiatic sound is the reason people don't like us in Europe," he told lawmakers.
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Article here:
RFE/RL
This is probably not the best time for Russian politicians to insult their friends to the south and east; they don't have a lot of friends to spare at the moment.
Avtal