On July 27, more than 10,000 believers of the Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchy gathered in Kyiv to celebrate the 1,028th anniversary of Baptism of the Kyivan Rus. It was the final stage of an almost month-long pilgrimage initiated by the Orthodox clerics simultaneously in eastern and western Ukraine.
The final prayer was led by the church leader Metropolitan Onufriy, who led the procession being constantly shadowed by Novinsky and several other opposition lawmakers who were backers of Yanukovych.
This huge pilgrimage was perceived by many in Ukraine as a campaign to show the might of the church, which started losing its position in the country over its links with Russia.
“I cannot remember any pilgrimage of such a scale in Ukraine. It’s a big question why it was held now,” said Yury Zavgorodny, religious scholar and professor of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
“It was a mobilization of the electorate, manifestation of the Russian world in Ukraine, a report to the curators that they (the church) still have support,” said Viktor Yelensky, religious scholar and lawmaker of People’s Front party. “They didn’t hide that the event was in fact a political one.”
Vadim Novinsky called all critics of the procession “the unwise people who don’t want peace and harmony.”
Speaking with the Kyiv Post, the oligarch often referred to texts from Bible. He said he was baptized at 26 and became seriously religious after 30.
Since 2011, Novinsky has become the main sponsor of this church, being mentioned as one of the main donors of the decoration works in the Uspensky Cathedral of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, the church’s main stronghold.
On Jan. 23, wearing a gilded attire of the Orthodox cleric, Novinsky assisted the Russian Orthodox church leader patriarch Kirill as he performed a service in Geneva. On June 25, in a gilded green cleric attire, Novinsky arrived in Kyiv Pechersk Lavra for a special liturgy on occasion of the name day of Metropolitan Onufriy.
Novinsky’s charity foundation sponsored building of several churches, and it funds the church’s department on the youth issues.
But Yelensky said Novinsky in fact goes far beyond that.
“He directly sponsors some hierarchs including I believe Onufriy,” Yelensky said. Novinsky denied this, saying he gives money for the church not to any personalities.
Novinsky admitted paying for buses to carry the believers participating in the mass pilgrimage in July but said for most of their needs the pilgrims paid themselves.
Zerkalo Nedeli and Forbes reported in 2014 that Novinsky’s bank Forum held big sums of money of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchy. The bank was that year liquidated for lack of liquidity by Ukraine’s national bank, headed by President Petro Poroshenko loyalist Valeria Gontareva.
The Kyiv Post independently found the accounts of this church in Forum Bank, mentioned in the court decision available at the state registry.
Experts say that Novinsky’s influence over the church rose during Yanukovych’s presidency and even increased when the Metropolitan Onufriy replaced his less pro-Moscow predecessor, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), who died in July 2014.
Change of the church leader was accompanied by dirty power games that are now being investigated by prosecutors.
Novinsky now is a suspect in a criminal case involving illegal detention by the police of Metropolitan Oleksandr of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky and Vishnevsky (Drabynko) from June 2013 by February 2014, the Prosecution General reported.
Drabynko, who was a close ally of the late Metropolitan Volodymyr, claims his detention was made to pressure the severely ill church leader in order to replace him with the more pro-Moscow figure. He pointed at Novinsky as one of the plotters, along with Viktor Pshonka, then prosecutor general, and Vitaly Zakharchenko, then interior minister.
Drabynko also said on his Facebook page that the plotters planned to use the new — and more loyal to Yanukovych church leader — to “actively engage him in preparation for the presidential elections in 2015” for which Yanukovych was planning to run for the second term.
On June 24, Novinsky attacked Drabynko in a yard of women’s monastery in Korets city of Rivne Oblast, accusing him of “church split and perjure.” Drabynko reported to the local police, and the prosecutors attached this incident to the criminal case.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko published on Nov. 3 the first page of the motion asking the parliament to allow a criminal probe on Novinsky.
The details of this document, published by Ukrainska Pravda web-site, show that in September 2013 Yanukovych ordered Novinsky to be in charge of keeping Drabynko in captivity and pressure Metropolitan Volodymyr to step down.
According to the prosecutors, Novinsky, for instance, was giving directions to the policemen by phone to either permit Drabynko to shortly leave his captivity to conduct worship services or not.
Novisky claimed on his Facebook that the charges are trumped up and called Drabynko a liar.
In July 2015, a long prepared unification of the two smaller churches — the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Metropoly and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church — failed with a scandal.
On July 9, 2015, the autocephalous hierarchs unexpectedly refused from the agreements they reached on the day before.
The Right Sector nationalist organization claimed based on the party sources that Novinsky offered a big sum of money to the autocephalous church leader Metropolitan Makariy. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Metropoly said in a statement they believed it was possible.
Kyiv Post sources in security services independently confirmed this.
Metropolitan Makariy denied in an interview to Religious Information Service of Ukraine on July 10 the accusations made by Right Sector. Novinsky called them “slander.”
