© Sputinik
The Ukrainian Church's drive to gain independent status (autocephaly) is a political move, pushed by President Petro Poroshenko who seeks to fix his crumbling popularity before the next election, historian Alexander Dvorkin says.
"
I'm not sure that Ukraine is really determined to get autocephaly. Mr. Poroshenko definitely wanted that very much, because his popularity is very low, the polls show very low figures, and he's very anxious to get re-elected," Professor of Church History at St. Tikhon's Orthodox University Alexander Dvorkin told RT.
"So, he needs to do something, at least something to raise his popularity.
And he believes that [the] announcement of autocephaly of [the] Ukrainian Church will be the thing that will do it."
Another benefactor of the autocephaly drive is the "so-called Patriarch Filaret, who was excommunicated by [the] Russian Orthodox Church for political reasons and for very grave moral transgressions."
'Patriarch Filaret' leads the so-called 'Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate', which is not recognized by other Orthodox churches, yet is openly courted by the Ukrainian authorities. The only canonical Orthodox church in the country is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is a constituent part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Comment: NBC's presumptions: a form of non-news reporting.