Dobkin makes a statement against Poroshenko for “inciting religious strife”

Mikhail Dobkin. Photo: kharkivoda.gov.ua

On June 18, 2020, former MP of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Mikhail Dobkin published on his Telegram channel a statement he submitted to the State Bureau of Investigation demanding that Petro Poroshenko be held accountable for his actions, which provoked “exacerbation of religious (interfaith) confrontation and hostility in the state”.

According to the statement “Petro Poroshenko, exercising the powers of the president, was to act as a guarantor of compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine, human and civil rights and freedoms, in particular, freedom of worldview and religion, equality before the law regardless of religious beliefs. (...) Instead, during 2017-2019, Petro Poroshenko neglected the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens and abused his official position to achieve his own goals.”

“In fact, manipulating the aspirations of the Ukrainian Orthodox community towards unification, Poroshenko used church organizations and religious confrontation to achieve victory during the 2019 elections. Such criminal actions of Poroshenko caused exacerbation of religious (interfaith) confrontation and hostility in the state. (...) Faith and Church for Poroshenko became a means and method of political struggle, which instead of consolidating society has led today to the stratification of the multinational people of the state, juxtaposition of ethnic and religious values, exaltation of some and humiliation of others. Ultimately, these actions eventuated in attaching dominant value to a certain ethnic ideology and religion, rather than national values, which contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine,” the ex-MP said in his statement.

Having cited numerous facts of unacceptable interference of Petro Poroshenko and his entourage in the affairs of the Church, as well as public rhetoric aimed at inciting religious hatred, Mikhail Dobkin emphasized that all of the above “circumstances regarding the intervention of Poroshenko in the affairs of the Church, calls to the newly elected President to continue with such interventions, the imposition of dogmatic interpretations of which of the Churches is correct, the ‘use’ of the Tomos for personal interests (election purposes) at the expense of budgetary funds (misuse), the demonstration of open intolerance towards the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) pose a danger to the social peace and political stability in Ukraine and contain signs of criminal acts.”

At the end of the statement, Mr. Dobkin demanded that all the information about criminal offenses indicated by him should be entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations to begin a pre-trial investigation.

As reported by the UOJ, on June 18, Petro Poroshenko stated that a criminal case had been opened against him because of the Tomos for the OCU. This statement was refuted by the UOC-KP, which clarified that the ex-president was given a suspicion in the case of the "raiding of the Kyiv Patriarchate", which was opened at the suit of the UOC-KP community of the church of the Nativity of Christ in Odessa.

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