Expert: Authorities must give top-down order to stop persecution of UOC

Political expert Elena Dyachenko. Photo: a video screenshot of the “1Kozak” YouTube channel

The top-down command of the authorities to stop the persecution of the UOC should be a revision of the anti-church laws adopted under Petro Poroshenko but since this has not happened so far, the oppression of the canonical Church continues by inertia, political analyst Elena Dyachenko said in the "Right to Faith" programme on the “1Kozak” YouTube channel.

She believes that new laws should be adopted to resolve social conflicts, but the anti-church laws adopted under Poroshenko were part of the election campaign and therefore provoked the confrontation. Failure to revise these scandalous laws by the new government does not give a clear signal on the ground about the end of the persecution of the UOC and the local authorities continue it by inertia.

“This law itself gave rise to social conflicts, so the new government did not revise the whole “armovir” (“army-language-faith” – Trans.) and other changes. They also created many other contradictions there, said Dyachenko. And the local authorities (continue the persecution – Ed.) by inertia, they were forced to do this during the Poroshenko time – to facilitate the seizure of churches of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. By inertia, they are now waiting for some instructions. And this, unfortunately, is inertia due to the fact that no revision has been carried out in terms of compliance with the Constitution.”

The political scientist believes that the scandalous anti-church laws issued under Poroshenko should be cancelled by the Vladimir Zelensky team, but, probably, the President does not consider this a priority against the background of crises in other areas. The expert also admits the fear of "Servants of the People" to raise unpopular topics, such as, for example, with the language law. Although Dyachenko notes positively that the created inter-factional association of deputies "For Confessional Peace in Ukraine" included, among other things, deputies from the "Servant of the People" party.

As reported, UOC parishioners are ready to take to the streets en masse to protect the Church, according to the UOC spokesperson.

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