Political Expert: Bill #4511 – War against Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Bill #4511 means war against the most powerful Ukrainian denomination – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said Mikhail Pogrebinsky on April 29 at a press conference "Political Outcomes of the Week" in the press center of RIA Novosti Ukraine.

"The bill that means war against the most powerful Ukrainian denomination – the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – is currently under debate in Parliament. Usually Ukrainian nationalists also add "of the Moscow Patriarchate." Nevertheless, this Church is known to be self-governing and all decision-making bodies as regards their internal operation are based in Kyiv, not in Moscow", said Pogrebinsky.

According to the political expert, this bill is absolutely contrary to the Constitution and the legislation of Ukraine, "The law requires such "wonderful " things as the following: the Church, which, as the law words, is controlled from the capital of the aggressor country should be re-registered and obtain permission from the local department of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry for Internal Affairs, etc., even in case of appointment of a bishop in a diocese. That is, this clause is completely contrary to the Ukrainian Constitution and laws", said the director of the Kyiv Center for Political and Conflict Studies.

The analyst expressed a concern that there is no certainty that this bill will be voted against, as Parliament has already voted for inadequate suggestions many times. He believes that this could be the beginning of a very dangerous process, as it is not just the initiative of several Ukrainian MPs.  "I am not alone in my suspicion that in the President's inner circle there is a very strong influential lobby that seeks the destruction, in fact, of this Church in Ukraine." According to Pogrebinsky, Poroshenko tried to arrange the election of Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, and did not really want the election of His Beatitude Onufriy, because he had another candidate, but it did not work out. "The important thing is that there is a plan, and it may have some roots in the presidential Administration. I intentionally raised this issue because I think the adoption of this bill could be the beginning of a very dangerous process", concluded the analyst.

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