Of the 44 deputies blocking the law on the banning of the Moscow Patriarchate, the vast majority are members of the previously banned pro-Russian faction “OPZZH”, almost half of the signatories are people’s deputies of “Servants of the People”.
According to the “CHESNO” material, 44 deputies demand that the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, refer to the Venice Commission regarding the opinion on the government draft law No. 8371, which proposes to ban the Moscow “church” in Ukraine.
The signatories of this appeal are the vast majority of members of the previously banned pro-Russian faction “OPZH”. Almost half of the signatories are deputies of “Servants of the People”, one representative each of “Batkivshchyna” and “For the Future” group, as well as non-factional deputies.
“It is noteworthy that a number of odious people’s deputies became the signatories of the appeal: Yuriy Boyko, Serhii Lyovochkin, Maksym Buzhanskyi, Artem Dmytruk, Yevgeny Shevchenko, Georgy Mazurashu, Pavlo Halimon and others. Note that most of the signatories hold leadership positions both at the level of parliamentary committees and at the factional level.
The author of the initiative is Andrii Motovylovets, the first deputy head of the Servants of the People faction, and three more deputy heads of the faction – Artem Kultenko, Olga Savchenko, and Maxim Tkachenko – also signed the petition. In addition, the head of the tax committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, and Yevhenii Brahar, who is currently acting as the head of the committee on freedom of speech instead of Nestor Shufrych.”
The authors of the appeal call the proposal to ban the church an attempt “to limit the rights of Ukrainian citizens and the freedom of worldview and religion.” They also noted that “the state does not have the right to indicate which church to go to believing citizens of Ukraine.” Such an appeal can significantly delay consideration of the initiative in the second reading.
