The government decided to restrict the import of publications in foreign languages. Such a decision was made at the end of last week by an interdepartmental commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko. The officials' motivation was that last year the circulation of printed publications in Ukrainian was significantly lower than the volume of printed products in Russian brought into Ukraine. Approximately 54 million copies versus 70 million. The creative elite considers the government's decision logical, given that the Russian language received "regional status" within one month in seven regions and cities at once. Writer Ivan Drach calls for decisive measures to protect domestic culture. "The state of the Ukrainian language and culture is so threatening that all measures are already justified," he said. Among the bestsellers recently published in Ukrainian, he named "Solodka Darusya" by Marichka Matrats and "Pokhovannya na mohyli" by Mykhailo Nazarenko.