Nezhin official publicly offends UOC believers

On February 27, 2019, after the meeting of the territorial community in the village of Kruty, Nezhin district, Chernigov region, Oleg Buzun, the chairman of the district council, allowed himself to speak insultingly on the Facebook social network about his voters who, due to religious beliefs, refused to succumb to provocations and change the canonical subordination of the local religious community, according to the press service of Nezhin eparchy.

“Oleg Buzun was personally present at the meeting in Kruty and did not hide his discontent with the fact that the residents of Nezhin region, guided by the legislation of Ukraine, reasonably denied all the standard arguments of the schismatics. Therefore, no decisions were made to change the jurisdiction of the local religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the meeting,” the message of the eparchy says.

It seems that Oleg Buzun lost his nerve from such an outcome and decided to speak insultingly on social networks. Forgetting that the chairman of the district council was not a landlord but a hired worker who carried out his activities for the taxes of his voters, Buzun described the Nezhin society as “rotten”. According to him, he came to such conclusions after the meeting in Kruty.

Such narratives of the official in the social media caused outrage even among those who are far from religious life. After all, their content is fully consistent with the position of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and defined as “intentional actions of an official aimed at inciting national, racial or religious hatred and animosity, at humiliating national honor and dignity or insulting the feelings of citizens due to their religious beliefs.”

As reported by the UOJ, guided by the current legislation of Ukraine, the rural head of Kruty, Victor Makedon, refused to consider the issue of transferring the UOC community to the OCU at the territorial community’s meeting.