Politologist: Transfer of St. Andrew's Church to Phanar breaks the law

St. Andrew's church in Kyiv. Photo: about-planet.ru

Political analyst Olena Dyachenko in an interview with the Klymenko Time youtube channel said that the transfer of St. Andrew's church took place in violation of Ukrainian law.

“On what grounds this happened to me is still not clear. I found an agreement concluded by the stauropegion (of Phanar) with the National Reserve ‘Sophia of Kyiv’ on the transfer of the stylobate. There is a clause in this agreement that the stauropegion undertakes to carry out repairs and restoration work in this monument of historical heritage, as well as to bankroll these works. I have a huge question – what kind of work did the stauropegion of the Patriarchate of Constantinople finance, according to the concluded agreement?” Dyachenko said.

According to her, the very legalization of this transfer raises questions, since the parliament, when passing the law on the transfer of St. Andrew's church to Phanar, abused its powers, removing St. Andrew's church from the list of objects prohibited for transfer.

“Only the executive power represented by the Cabinet of Ministers can dispose of architectural monuments. The parliament did this and already on the basis of this law – unconstitutional – a government decree was adopted. Apparently, Mr. Groisman (at the time of the mentioned decision, he held the post of prime minister – Ed.) understood the whole point and, choosing to be on the safe side, demanded a parliamentary vote from Poroshenko. Only when it was done, Groisman changed the 2001 Cabinet of Ministers decree, which contained a list of objects prohibited from being transferred for use. St. Andrew's church was deleted from this list and transferred in this way,” the political analyst noted.

“But the fact is that both the law and the decree were adopted a year before the stauropegion was registered as a legal entity. It means they passed the law first and only then registered a stauropegion as a religious organization under a different name. Moreover, in the law and in the resolution, it is designated differently. Somewhere like a metochion, somewhere like a stauropegion. There was a confusion in the names of legal entities. Ukraine financed the restoration (of St. Andrew's church – Ed.) at its own expense as a state and simply donated it to Constantinople," the expert added.

As the UOJ previously reported, a video with naked women was filmed near the walls of St. Andrew's сhurch in Kyiv.

Read also