Filaret’s work for KGB does not affect the credibility of his "party", – politologist

Political analyst, director of the Center for Political Marketing Vasily Stoyakin answered the sociologist's question about how the publication of documents on the KGB contacts of the clergymen and hierarchs in the Soviet era could influence the authority of the church. As an obvious confirmation of his opinion, he gave an example of the KGB agent, the "patriarch" of the UOC-KP, reports "The First Cossack" channel.

"As a rule, sociologists ask about the attitude not even to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but to the Church in general, including the synagogue and the mosque, and even the political party, the Kyiv Patriarchate," the politologist said.

"The campaign that there is a close contact between the Church hierarchy and the KGB began in the days of Perestroika," explained Vasily Stoyakin. "It was constantly manipulated and especially actively used during the intra-Orthodox schism, because the story of Mikhail Antonovich Denisenko ("Patriarch" Filaret) being a secret agent is widely known to everyone. But this does not affect the level of credibility of Mikhail Antonovich in any way, because assigning oneself to the Kyiv Patriarchate is more of a political choice than any other."

"Well, you never know who one might have worked with before – in times like those," the politologist cited the justification of Filaret by his supporters.

Given the above, the expert concluded that the campaign to discredit the Church will not affect the confidence of the population.

In general, experts agree that for religious people the compromising of religion through the media will not be of much importance, but it fits well into the growing pressure on the UOC, which Ruslan Bortnik considers part of the strategy to destroy the traditional Ukrainian society.