“The adoption of this law pursued purely political goals,” - a lawyer about the law ”On banning the UOC”

Odessa lawyer Yuriy Kanikaev said that the anti-church law No. 3894 adopted in August by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine had political rather than practical goals. The lawyer believes that the first court verdicts in this direction will be seen only in a few years, and for the 9 months allocated to the UOC to eliminate inconsistencies with the new law, the Church will be able to get out of the current situation in another way. About this he told in an interview with the publication “Dumskaya”.

“According to him, after 9 months, prosecutors and local executive committees will have the right to file lawsuits in administrative courts, in which they will ask to cancel the registration of this or that church institution. By paying a court fee, of course. I predict that the consideration of these lawsuits will be delayed, so we will receive the first court decisions that will come into force in three years. The intrigue remains in whose favor these decisions will be, since the prosecutor or the executive committee (and the State Service, – Ed.) will have to prove the fact that a particular legal entity (a particular church institution) was affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate at the time of filing the lawsuit. During these 9 months, the Gundyaevites are bound to find ways to conceal signs that they are affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, and it is not a fact that the lawsuits will be universally satisfied. Especially if the judge is a parishioner of the Moscow Patriarchate. It seems to me that the adoption of this law had purely political goals – to appease those who actively oppose the Moscow Patriarchate and their supporters. It is not an instrument of the real fight against the Moscow church,” – the lawyer explained.

Earlier, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada and the State Service of Ukraine for Ethno-politics and Freedom of Conscience discussed further steps to influence the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in connection with the entry into force of the scandalous Law No. 3894-IX “On Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations”, popularly nicknamed the law “On Banning the UOC”. As a result of the meeting, it was decided to create a special commission and conduct a nationwide audit of the property of religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which, apparently, the state plans to expropriate in the near future.