In Church matters Poroshenko tries to sit on two chairs, – expert

The director of the Ukrainian Center for Political Studies and Conflictology, Mikhail Pogrebinsky, believes that the All-Ukrainian Cross Procession-2017 impressed the President of Ukraine, so Petro Poroshenko will try to "sit on two chairs" in church matters. So the politologist commented to RIA Novosti on Poroshenko's refusal to pass a bill obliging the Church to agree the appointment of bishops with the state.

"Denisenko (head of the Kiev Patriarchate – Ed.) has a good position under the President," Mikhail Pogrebinsky believes. "He is the leader of the "war party" in the spiritual sphere and is interested in the destruction of the UOC. And the President talks with him in a highly respectful way. He goes to his church, although initially he was (and, perhaps, remains) a parishioner of the Moscow Patriarchate Church. And I think that Poroshenko was impressed with the Cross Procession, which took place in July and gathered about 100,000 people. It seems that he does not want to have a steady reputation of the enemy of the Church before the elections."

At the same time, Petro Poroshenko bluntly stated that Ukraine has the right to the Unified Local Church, and he will personally take care of this issue. In addition, other anti-church bills have not been removed from the agenda.
"We can say that Poroshenko is trying to sit on two chairs," the expert concludes.