Zelensky vs. Tucker Carlson: Never been around? Don't make a sound!
After the faithful were driven out of their sacred monastery, the Lavra became little more than an extension of the Presidential Office – another venue for government events.
Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Not to pray. Not to seek spiritual comfort or guidance. No, he came to the Refectory Church to meet with entertainers and hand out awards.
In a video of the event, Zelensky declares that culture is the foundation of our nation, that the emptiness within us must be filled with confidence in Ukraine's victory, and that artists should use their fame to help the state – and so on.
These are all perfectly understandable and timely issues, and the president has every right to discuss them with cultural figures. But here's the question: Why the Lavra?
After all, Zelensky said not a single word about the Church, Christianity, or spirituality. The meeting could just as easily have taken place anywhere else – in a theater, at the Presidential Office, or even in a shopping mall. Nothing would have changed. Yet the president chose a sanctuary. Why?
Because once the faithful were driven out of their own sacred monastery, the Lavra became just another outpost of Bankova Street – a convenient stage for government events. In fact, one gets the distinct impression that this was precisely why the UOC was forced out in the first place.
Moreover, the ongoing court battles over the Upper Lavra, where pro-government nationalists send their hired thugs to intimidate believers, appear designed to cement the "success" of wresting the holy site from the faithful.
All this brings to mind Zelensky's recent interview, in which he lashed out at American journalist Tucker Carlson for speaking about the persecution of Christians in Ukraine. The president's argument? Carlson has never set foot in Ukraine, so he has no business expressing an opinion about what happens here.
That's quite a remarkable claim in a world where terabytes of information about virtually every corner of the planet flood the internet every single minute.
There's an old song by the band Lyapis Trubetskoy with a refrain that conveys the following idea:
"Not been around? Then don't make a sound!"
"Not on the scene? Keep your opinions clean!"
Sounds remarkably familiar, doesn't it?
It could have been written for this very occasion.
