Political scientist Bondarenko compared the arguments of the Office of the President against the UOC with the logic of Stalinist repressions

Ukrainian political scientist Kostyantyn Bondarenko has reacted sharply to statements by representatives of the Ukrainian President’s Office justifying the pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). He compared the argumentation used to the logic of Stalinist repressions, emphasizing the controversial approach based on the number of criminal cases against clergymen. The political scientist wrote about it in his Telegram channel.

Commenting on the statements of Vita Titarenko, advisor to the deputy head of the Office of the President, who criticized UN experts and international human rights organizations for the lack of support for state policy in the religious sphere, Bondarenko questioned the validity of her position. Titarenko argued that the alleged ban of the UOC was fully justified by the number of criminal proceedings opened against its clerics.

Bondarenko said that this way of justifying pressure on the Church can be equated to the rhetoric of the totalitarian era. “According to such logic, one can use the number of cases brought during Stalin’s time as an argument in favor of the hostile and anti-people activities of hundreds of thousands of repressed people. It was not Stalin who was a dictator – he had to fight his enemies,” Bondarenko wrote.

He also ironically added that in this case “and Zelensky is not an autocrat and despot – after all, if you believe this logic, look how many enemies found in the UOC”.

We will remind, earlier we reported that the advisor to the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Vita Titarenko spoke at the forum “Sustainable Europe: Forum to counter Russian disinformation and propaganda”, which was held in Brussels, accused the UN and the World Council of Churches to protect the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from persecution by the Ukrainian authorities. Titarenko believes that the criminal cases opened against UOC clerics demonstrate the urgent need to restrict the UOC’s activities in the country.