Hybrid "opium" war waged by the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine is part of Putin's military plan, political scientist says

This opinion was expressed by political analyst Yevgeny Magda on November 8 in his blog on Site.ua titled "The Kremlin's Opium Wars".

"The local church, independent of the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, noticeably irritates the Kremlin. The reason is simple: the potential unification of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians is a terrible dream for Moscow, since such a development will deprive Gundyaev of a significant part of his influence in the post – Soviet space. Let me remind you that the UOC-MP is the largest part of the Russian Orthodox Church, a real diamond for it," the political scientist notes.

He recalls that since 2014, the clergy of the UOC-MP have repeatedly shown themselves as collaborators, closely interacting with the Russian military and their puppets in the Donbas:
"It came to the use of churches as weapons depots in the Donbas. At the same time, the Russian authorities consistently ousted Metropolitan Klyment from the occupied Crimea. If you recall the catch phrase "How much does opium cost for the people?" it becomes clear that Russia is waging a hybrid Opium War in Ukraine – a war for the consciousness and conscience of millions of our fellow citizens."

"This behavior of the hierarchs of the UOC-MP has its own reason: over the past two weeks, the SBU has put forward suspicions to two high-ranking priests of this church in violation of the law, and the well-known Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed) was searched at customs when he tried to leave for the territory of Moldova. By the way, it was from the territory of the neighboring state that fakes about coronavirus and 5G towers were very actively broadcast on the "church" line. Acting head of the SBU Vasyl Malysh officially stated that more than three dozen spotters in cassocks were detained, and this, as it seems, is not the final figure, because the war continues. It is significant that Malyuk recently stressed that he is aware of the threat posed by the actions of the UOC-MP," the political scientist writes.

He notes: "The Church, which in the conditions of aggression only imitated a break with the Russian Orthodox Church, is unlikely to be able to claim yesterday's influence after the end of the deadly clash between Ukraine and Russia. And the secular nature of the Ukrainian state in this case is a secondary issue, because society itself has changed, and collaboration with the enemy will not be forgiven either for ordinary citizens or for clergy."