Expert: Yermak didn’t ask the country if it waits for Phanar head’s visit

Глава ОП Андрей Ермак. Фото: vesti.ua

The head of the President's Office can speak about the fact that all of Ukraine is looking forward to the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew only after asking the country about it, believes Ruslan Bortnik, a political expert, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics.

Commenting for the UOJ on the meeting of the head of the OP Andrey Yermak with the Phanar hierarch, at which the parties discussed the upcoming visit of the Patriarch of Constantinople to Ukraine, Ruslan Bortnik noted that the arrival of Patriarch Bartholomew “will be another element of the religious crisis – there are a lot of opponents among citizens, believers. Protests, some crises are possible."

As for the words of Andrey Yermak that "the whole country is looking forward to the visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch", then, as the expert said, Yermak did not ask the country about this.

In his opinion, such statements by the OP head are an attempt “to build through the Patriarchate of Constantinople a more positive relationship with Western, American partners, with whom everything is not easy for Yermak. But this is building relations at the cost of internal peace and stability, at the cost of the Ukrainian Constitution and laws, and this is an absolutely wrong approach."

“The very statement of Yermak is undoubtedly untrue. It would be better if Yermak asked the country. He can say this after asking the country about it. But he didn’t ask,” resumed Ruslan Bortnik.

Let us remind you that earlier political expert Ruslan Bortnik explained that Andrei Yermak had no right to meet with the Phanar hierarch in the status of the head of the President's Office.

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