Expert: Power plays along with nationalists due to UOC supporters passivity
Ruslan Bortnik. Photo: a screenshot of the video on the “1Kozak” Youtube channel
The current Ukrainian government is sensitive to street protests, so it can't resist the national democrats and nationalists who actively rally and protest, while their opponents, including UOC believers, passive, disappointed with the elections, do not go to vote and publicly defend their interests. Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute for Politics Analysis and Management, said this on the air of the “Right to Faith” programme on the “1Kozak” Youtube channel.
In his opinion, such passivity allows nationalists, with the support or connivance of the authorities, to strike blows at the canonical Church. The expert believes that further development according to this scenario will lead to attempts to seize significant religious institutions and the liquidation of the UOC as a religious organization. “Attempts to seize religious institutions, new and symbolic, are no longer just rural churches, irreversible. And the attempts to liquidate or split the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as an organization are irreversible,” believes Ruslan Bortnik.
As reported, Ruslan Bortnik believes the US administration may support an attack on the UOC in Ukraine.
Read also
Kosovo to enact law restricting Serbian Church, experts say
Analysts warn that the new "Law on Foreigners" in Kosovo could restrict the presence of clergy, believers' access to shrines, and increase pressure on the Serbian community.
Congress Speaker: Demand to introduce Sharia law in USA is a serious problem
The Speaker of the House of Representatives stated that there is growing concern in society about attempts to impose Islamic law, which is incompatible with the American Constitution.
UK government introduces restrictions on "anti-Muslim hostility"
UK authorities have adopted a new definition of "Islamophobia" which, according to experts, could provide Muslims with special protection and restrict freedom of speech.
Dumenko brings icon in Church Slavonic to Ministry of Health
Epifaniy presented cardiologists with an Intercession icon, with inscriptions in Church Slavonic, which his structure calls a "sign of the Moscow tradition".
ISIS supporters carries out terrorist attack at anti-Islamic protest in NY
Near the home of New York's Muslim mayor, radicals threw two makeshift bombs at protesters during an anti-Islamic rally.
Hryshchuk: If UOC hands over its church itself, angle grinders aren't needed
An OCU chaplain called on UOC believers to accept the loss of the shrine for the sake of their own "enlightenment".