PESKOV ON AUTOCEPHALOUS CHURCH IN UKRAINE: WE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO INTERFERE, THOUGH SCHISMATIC ACTIVITY IS TIGHTLY INTERMINGLED WITH POLITICS
Interfax-Religiia, 17 December 2018
In the Kremlin it was declared that it does not consider itself to have the right to interfere in church processes in Ukraine, but it takes note of the political underpinning of the schismatic activity.
"The relationship of our Russian Orthodox Church to these processes is very well known, and you know that we are talking about inter-church relations. In this case, we do not consider ourselves to have the right to interfere in these processes," the press secretary of the president of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, said, in response to a question about the Kremlin's position in connection with the creation of an autocephalous church in Ukraine.
"Although we see that these processes in Ukraine, schismatic activity, are tightly intermingled with politics there, and that, of course, according to church canons is hardly permissible," he added.
On the other hand, D. Peskov continued, "we know that schismatics do not particularly observe church canons."
To a clarifying question of what he has in mind as the interference of politics in church processes in Ukraine, the Russian president's press secretary answered: "What is happening. The direct participation of the Ukrainian president in this process, etc., etc."
D. Peskov had difficulty answering the news media's question whether the church schism in Ukraine may be a topic of discussion in today's session of the Security Council of the RF. "It is for this reason that we do not report the agenda before a session, but we do so afterward," he noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 December 2018)
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