Expert: Power ignores Cross Procession of the UOC out of fear

The fear of the current Ukrainian authorities for large numbers of people gathering in one place made media keep silent and not promote the Cross Procession. It was declared by expert of the Institute for Analysis and Management of Politics Kirill Molchanov to the information agency GolosUA.

“The UOC Cross Procession this year has not become anything new for the Ukrainian society, given that such events are held regularly,” said Molchanov. But this year, unlike the previous one, there wasn’t any resonance in the end. The reason is simple: in 2016 there were a large number of provocations by the authorities, power structures and paramilitary societies. It turns out then the officials simply played "in the hands" of the organizers of the procession and attracted serious attention to it."

The political scientist expressed the opinion that this year the authorities have chosen a different tactic – silence.

"This year, as I understand it, they decided not to attract public attention to this event," Molchanov said. "This is due to the fact that the authorities are afraid of mass appearances in the streets, and therefore, decided simply to hush the information about it."

Cross Procession-2017 has gahered over 100 thousand participants.