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Russian clergy blasts Kiev’s ‘politically motivated’ religious communities law

Russia's clergy says the law on the affiliation of religious organizations approved by the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday was drafted without any dialogue with believers

© Valentin Sprinchak/TASS

MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. The law on the affiliation of religious organizations approved by the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday was drafted without any dialogue with believers, and this act is obviously politically motivated, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations (DECR), told TASS on Friday.

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"It is beyond a doubt that it was drafted in secret, without any dialogue with Ukraine’s religious organizations, and without considering their own wishes, and the aim was to bring the current regime’s political project to fruition," he stressed. Balashov emphasized that the text of the approved law differed from the one published earlier, that is why a thorough legal analysis was required.

Ukraine’s religions affiliation law and the procedure for state registration of religious organizations stipulate that a decision on changing the affiliation of a religious community is made by at least two-thirds of its members.

Archbishop Clement, Chairman of the Synodal Information Department of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), earlier told TASS that the UOC considers the law in question to be a flagrant violation of Ukraine’s constitution and its international obligations, which grossly infringes on the rights of freedoms of believers.

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