Staunton, Sept. 12 – The Russian government is currently conducting a worldwide campaign against Kyiv for a new law that requires religious groups there headquartered in countries attacking Ukraine to break those ties or face the prospect that they will be closed down by the authorities.
But Moscow has not acknowledged and international media have not paid attention to what has been going on in Russian-occupied portions of Ukraine since 2014. There, the Russian authorities have been actively suppressing all denominations except those subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In a detailed, 4500-word article, investigative journalist Dmitry Durnyev of the Specter news portal describes how Russian occupation officials have closed down all churches not linked to the ROC MP since 2014 and especially since Putin began his expanded invasion of Ukraine in 2022 (spektr.press/bog-porugaem-ne-byvaet/).
A handful of independent churches do survive, Durnyev acknowledges, but only on sufferance. Such churches must profess their unquestioning loyalty to Moscow given that the threat they too will be closed down hangs over them, especially as the war, now approaching its 1000th day continues.
There are legitimate reasons to be concerned about Ukraine’s law on religious group, but attacks on it by Moscow are hypocritical given that what Moscow has been doing in Russian-occupied areas is far worse than anything that could even potentially happen occur in Ukraine (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/08/whats-next-for-moscow-church-in-ukraine.html).
At the very least, those who are critical of Ukraine's legislation need to be even more critical of what Moscow has actually done rather than viewing Russian critics as its allies regarding Kyiv's handling of a church whose leaders have repeatedly shown themselves not only ready to take orders from Moscow but to work against Ukraine.
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