Even Central Committee of the CPSU did not interfere with activities of the Church as brazenly as the current government, - political expert

"Article 35 of the Constitution states: "the church and religious organizations in Ukraine are separated from the state". Not very well separated, though. In the parliament, bill No. 4511 "is pushed through". Its "gimmick" in Article 5 is the appointment of leadership of religious organizations only through coordination with the state institution – the Ministry of Culture," the journalist said.

Commenting on bill No. 4511, he stressed that even in the USSR "there was no law according to which the appointment of Church leaders was to be coordinated with the bodies of the CPSU."

Viacheslav Pikhovshek reminded that another anti-church bill #4128, allegedly facilitating the transition of religious communities from one confession to another, was disapproved not only by the UOC, but also by the Roman Catholic Church and other denominations.

He also gave an example of the real situation on May 16, 2017. "Village Zoryanoe of Vinkovtsy district of Khmelnitsky region. Right-wing radicals, led by deputy from "Freedom" party Burlik, seized the UOC temple. They arrived, declared themselves to be a community, brought a representative of the Kyiv Patriarchate, handed him the keys to the church. Law enforcement officers, in their turn, were inactive.

Under the threat of seizures are not only temples of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. For if the bill is adopted, any group of people can declare themselves a local community, and the internal order of the confession is ignored: for example, for a faithful Jew, it is not enough to declare himself as such, his actions in the community should be the testimony. The same is true about Lutherans. As for our state, it is trying to create conditions under which anyone declares himself a community and seizes church property," said the political expert.

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