On Tuesday, February 20, Robert Amsterdam, a lobbyist fir the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate), and MP Vadym Novinskyi’s lawyer, arrived in Kyiv. Amsterdam’s Ukrainian-based try to keep his visit a complete secret, but the Spiritual Front of Ukraine did manage to find out some details.
According to SFU’s sources in the State Border Guard Service, Amsterdam crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border at around 5:00am local time on February 20 and arrived in Kyiv by train. Almost immediately from the train station, Amsterdam was taken to a meeting with the head of the UOC (MP), Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky) to the residence in Feofania. There can be no doubt that the two were talking about “persecution” – Onufriy handed over to Amsterdam the files collected across dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP). It is quite expected that Amsterdam and the UOC (MP) will use this information as part of a provocative media campaign in the near future.
In the morning of Wednesday, February 21, a meeting between Amsterdam and “Ukrainian media personalities” was set to take place. As we learned, only the “loyal” media were invited to that meeting, probably so that others would not ask the lawyer and lobbyist any inconvenient questions. Amsterdam is also scheduled to meet with a number of lawmakers, including Artem Dmytruk, who opposes the adoption of the law banning religious organizations affiliated with the aggressor state and is known for bailing out suspects from among UOC (MP) clerics who are under investigation. At a meeting with legislators, Amsterdam plans to present some kind of “legal analysis” of the bill banning religious organizations affiliated with the aggressor state, in order to make sure that the parliament postpones the vote on the new legislation.
Amsterdam’s visit to Kyiv will last at least until Friday, February 23. There is hope that he will find time to talk with real Ukrainian journalists and answer questions that go beyond those agreed upon.
Lobbyist or propagandist?
Amsterdam gave an extremely manipulative interview to Tucker Carlson last fall, where both lied about the “persecution of Christians,” the “ban” on churches, and the priests being thrown behind bars.
By a “strange” coincidence of circumstances, a few days after Carlson’s visit to Moscow, it turned out that Amsterdam was going to Kyiv to “warn” representatives of the government and parliament (of Ukraine) against mistakes and not to give them a chance to set up the second reading of Draft Law 8371 on prohibition of religious organizations affiliated with the aggressor state.
Recently, in an interview with Aleksandr Shelest, Amsterdam made another false statement. He condemned the actions of the Ukrainian authorities and expressed outrage over the “assaults” against priests.
Amsterdam’s infamous interview with Carlson, as well as their Moscow and Kyiv visits can be considered as part of the Russian campaign to discredit Ukraine, as well as meddle in the U.S. elections. That’s as if to say that the White House supports a government that “persecutes Christians.” There will be more and more such anti-Ukrainian slurs in the coming weeks and months and, accordingly, against the Democratic Party led by Joe Biden.
In other, peaceful times, this could be perceived merely as American domestic political strife. But now, in the face of Russia’s full-scale aggression, this is an actual campaign of meddling in the U.S. election. Nothing new for the Kremlin, really. On October 20, the United States published intelligence assessment of Russia’s previous acts of interference in the American elections: “Moscow is using spies, social media and Russian state-run media to erode public faith in the integrity of democratic elections worldwide,” Reuters reported back then.
