U.S. played major role in creation of OCU – political analyst

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden during a meeting with the "honorary acting spiritual mentor" of the OCU Filaret Denysenko and other participants of the "unification" process. Photo: open sources

The Patriarchate of Constantinople made its decision to grant a Tomos of Autocephaly to Ukraine under pressure from the U.S. political establishment, political analyst Andriy Vydyshenko, an expert with the Kyiv Center for Political Studies and Conflictology, said on the Pershyi Kozatskyi TV channel.

According to Vydyshenko, U.S. politicians are able to exert pressure on the Phanar by using the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America as an instrument of political influence.

“The U.S. government exerts pressure on the Phanar’s position through the American Archdiocese,” the expert said.

Vydyshenko said the process of granting the Tomos to Ukraine was overseen by U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden; Sam Brownback, then governor of Kansas and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom; as well as the U.S. State Department and officials at the U.S. Embassy led by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

He stressed that the agreement between Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was itself clearly politically motivated.

As a reminder, on December 17, 2018, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino expressed U.S. support for the creation of the OCU. “The establishment of this Church was a historic event for Ukraine. The United States continues to strongly support Ukraine and believes that religious freedom must not be impeded by outside interference. Religious freedom extends to all Ukrainians, including those who choose to join or not to join the new Orthodox Church,” Palladino said at the time.

On December 20, 2018, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch congratulated Epifaniy Dumenko, “Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine,” on his election as “primate” of the OCU.

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