Avakov: Politicians can use the church question to incite hatred

Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov

The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov considers the creation of the OCU to be strategically right, but this potentially poses a danger, because politicians may speculate on this and incite hatred. Arsen Avakov said this in an interview with “Interfax-Ukraine”.

“Our current interchurch situation can be another destabilization factor that I see possible in the context of elections,” the minister noted. “In this situation, we should not allow our enemies to make a problem for us from this complicated process. It is the responsibility of both parties, including the churches involved in this process. One should not speed up the process and attract extremist radical forces to it, while others should understand the objectivity of the process.”

Avakov assures that he will not allow provocations and violent scenarios.

“There is no need to hire detachments to guard the Lavra or a temple, detachments from either side will be disarmed by us, and all power attempts will be suppressed. The same applies to right-wing radicals, - the Interior Minister warned. “I will not allow anyone to interfere in interparochial relations and seek here a pretext for destabilization.”

Earlier, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov stated about the unacceptability of intimidation or harassment on the religion ground. As the UOJ reported, the head of the ROCOR Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral) of Eastern America and New York said that the decision of the Constantinople Patriarchate, with the active participation of the Ukrainian government, could provoke bloodshed and violence.

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