Tiahnybok: Priests on Lists of Svoboda Party Are to Counterbalance 'Moscow Priests' on Lists of Opponents

The clergymen who have run in the election as representatives of the Party Svoboda and will become government deputies will be recalled in the event of approval of the draft Constitution of Ukraine proposed by this party, stated the leader of the party, Oleh Tiahnybok, at a press conference in Lutsk on October 18. “We will be the first to recall them,” said Tiahnybok.

According to “Volyn Truth” Pravda.lutsk.ua internet edition, the program provisions of Svoboda, particularly, the “National Constitution of Ukraine” contain a provision that “ordained persons have no right to be elected to state authorities or local self-government authorities.”

Oleh Tiahnybok reported that clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church run in the election for authorities as representatives of his political force.

The leader of Svoboda motivated this step by an effort to counterbalance the opponents who include “Moscow priests” in the election lists. In addition, other arguments mentioned by Tiahnybok include the visits of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow to Ukraine, promotion of the visits of the Moscow clergy by the present authorities in the person of President Yanukovych, and external aspirations to build the “Russian World” in Ukraine.  

As for the fact that the press secretary of the Volyn Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Vitalii Sobko, runs for the Volyn Regional Council as a representative of Svoboda, Oleh Tiahnybok explained that his presence in the supreme representative institution of the region “will promote moralization of the deputies.”