The mayor of Novosibirsk has said that the Cyrillic script should be used on all street ads
FILE PHOTO © Sputnik
The mayor of Russia’s third-largest city has said that companies should be mandated to only use the Cyrillic script in street advertising campaigns.
“It is a good idea. I support it, and I think that the majority of the residents will support it as well,” Novosibirsk Mayor Anatoly Lokot told Radio Rossii on Thursday. “We must switch [to the use of] the Russian language.”
According to Lokot, the measure is timely because many well-known foreign companies and global brands have left the Russian market in protest to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, which was launched in February 2022. “They have nothing to advertise here,” he stated.
The mayor said that officials would prepare a legal framework for the new regulation. He added that, although the change would require “some time,” the process has been launched.
Novosibirsk, which is located in Siberia, is set to follow the example of the city of Krasnodar in southern Russia, which banned businesses from using foreign language on street signs and billboards last month.
READ MORE: Major Russian city bans foreign language signs
In February, President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law that requires public institutions and advertisements to follow “the norms of modern Russian literary language.”
