Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said Russia’s meddling with the electoral process in Ukraine will have a colossal scale and the church issue can, in particular, be exploited to destabilize the situation.
“In fact, Russia and us have got a common information space, and their meddling will be colossal, according to my estimates,” the minister said in an exclusive interview with the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency in response to a question whether Russia’s meddling with elections in Ukraine can be serious.
At the same time, he said, “I don’t think Russia will physically meddle with our elections; however, they will try to be most active in using the propaganda—and they will attempt to watch whether we rack our brains ourselves. And we, being an adult democratic society, must demonstrate wisdom not to ring their bells!”
Avakov said that the church issue can also be exploited by Russia for provocations: “As a bad scenario, I can foresee provocations from Russia’s side. For instance, when someone comes to seize somebody’s temple, sets it on fire, and, God forbid, people will perish, and, speaking figuratively, Putin will fly there on a helicopter himself and start screaming that people are dying, as well as the clergy and the Russian world. We must not give them an opportunity to achieve this.”
The minister said that in order to prevent such situations the police must respond harshly to the tiniest violations.
