Political expert: Poroshenko inflated religious extremism in Ukraine

Head of the Ukrainian Politics Foundation/UP Foundation Konstantin Bondarenko. Photo: uapolicy.org

In Ukraine, extremism, including religious, is not an isolated case, but at the same time there is no law to combat it. The head of the Ukrainian Politics Foundation / UP Foundation, historian, political analyst Konstantin Bondarenko said this at a press conference dedicated to manifestations of extremism in the country. The video of the conference was published by First Cossack channel.

The expert noted that in Ukraine there is not even a legally formalized concept of "extremism", although the phenomenon itself takes place.

In particular, he specified that it is about religious extremism – seizures of temples and confrontations between different religious communities. Also, manifestations of ethno-nationalist extremism based on xenophobia are not uncommon.

“The activities of such a person as Petro Poroshenko and his political force only contributed to the incitement of religious extremism. <...> In order for it not to ‘thunder’, it is already necessary to do a number of studies, to develop a methodological and legislative basis for combating extremism, so that in the future it does not turn into the number-one problem for Ukraine,” stressed Konstantin Bondarenko.

According to the findings of the Foundation's experts, over the current year (from December 2019 to November 2020), 25 cases of religious extremism were recorded in Ukraine: these are the seizures of churches, obstruction of freedom of religion, interference in church affairs by public and political organizations.

We will remind, earlier Konstantin Bondarenko commented on the selective approach of the authorities, who denied the UOC the opportunity to hold a divine service in St. Sophia Cathedral of Kyiv, while the OCU was allowed to.

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