Religious scholar: MP Poturaev receives commercial dividends from expulsion of UOC from Kyiv Cave Monastery

Ukrainian MP and chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Mykyta Poturaev is receiving commercial dividends from the expulsion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Two months after the UOC was banned from operating in the monastery, Poturaev’s assistant registered a “charitable foundation” that signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve to use budget funds. Religious scholar and media lobbyist of the OCU Tetiana Derkach wrote about this in her publication.

“After the termination of the use agreements, alternative sponsors began to appear at the reserve. The project “Spiritual Revival by Culture” was invented for their activities, which, in particular, includes cultural and spiritual rehabilitation of the military. First of all, we are talking about the Antonia and Theodosius of the Caves Charitable Foundation (EDRPOU code 45654874), registered on 20.06.2024. Among the founders is Denys Leonidovych Rozov, who is also an assistant to MP from the Servant of the People party, Mykyta Poturaiev. As you know, it is Poturaev (a person involved in SurkovLeaks, an entry point for Russian influence, a consultant to Oleksandr Vilkul during the Yanukovych era) who is the driver of the “zeroing” of the UOC through the mechanism of affiliation with the ROC, established by the Law of 20.08.2024 No. 3894-IX “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Religious Organizations”. The foundation’s website states that its “core value is the revival and strengthening of national identity through the restoration of historical justice.” Judging by official releases, in the 2 months since its creation, this foundation has already signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve and plans to implement a number of projects, including an inventory of the Lavra’s dendroflora, spiritual support for military veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war “Spiritual revival by culture”, creation of the catalog “Treasures of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”, publication of books about the Lavra’s treasures and sale of products for people with limited mobility,” — Derkach wrote.

The religious scholar added that Poturaev’s foundation is not the only organization created to use budget funds thanks to the image of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Derkach noted that most of these organizations have an opaque structure and vague information about the budgets of their projects.

“Now the reserve has many such memoranda, which, however, do not specify any amounts of work or services. The description of the types of cooperation is very vague. Here’s how the reserve sees its cooperation with the Department of Tourism and Promotion of the Kyiv City State Administration: “development of the tourist potential of Kyiv, promotion of the positive image of the National Conservation Area “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” (hereinafter referred to as the Conservation Area), increase in the number of visitors to the Conservation Area and development of mass tourism in the city by creating a modern tourist product, promotion of tourist destinations, new tourist routes.” In other words, the organization of “active, cultural recreation and meaningful leisure for residents and guests of Kyiv”. It is clear that this package includes the classics of the budget-draining genre: “scientific and practical conferences, seminars, round tables, trainings, workshops, business forums, business meetings, round tables with representatives of embassies, chambers of commerce, international governmental and non-governmental organizations, and business structures,” — the religious scholar added.

Earlier, we reported that the Accounting Chamber of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine published an audit report, according to which the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine did not fully ensure the procedure for the targeted use of budget funds for the organization of the work of the National Historical and Architectural Reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”. It is reported that out of the 556.4 million hryvnias allocated by the state, the reserve used 29.5 million “uneconomically and inefficiently” in 2020-2023.