Retired SBU general: The UOC is incapable of organizing a protest movement

Yahun. Photo: Flickr

In an interview with the Espreso TV channel, retired SBU Major General Viktor Yahun commented on the possibility of protests by believers amid state inspections of the Church for alleged affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church. In his view, the UOC is incapable of organizing a serious protest movement.

According to the general, “those people who believe in something can be fooled, they can be roused, they can even be led somewhere. But someone has to lead them.” However, Yahun emphasized that “there are very few of the bold ones in the ROC in Ukraine who are ready to lead and take responsibility.”

“They don’t really want to draw attention to themselves, because the more visible you are, the fewer opportunities you have to make money. And at a certain point, their ability to make money will simply vanish, because if they are not a religious organization and they don’t register accordingly, they’ll have to pay taxes – and all their candle-making production will go down the drain,” the major general noted.

Yahun admitted that the risk of such protests does exist and that this risk is taken into account and controlled. “But to say they could build an entire protest movement on this – I don’t believe it. Because they can be very quickly disorganized and put in their place, and they know this very well,” he stressed.

As a reminder, Yahun previously complained that there are currently no legal grounds for banning the UOC.

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