In Ukraine, an All-Ukrainian association "Orthodox Choice" has been created, which will defend the interests of believers of the Moscow Patriarchate in the upcoming parliamentary and local elections. The association arose on the basis of two public Orthodox organizations – the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine and the Orthodox Brotherhood of Alexander Nevsky.\nValentin Lukiyanyk and Yuriy Yegorov, the heads of these organizations, presenting "Orthodox Choice" at a press conference at the "Interfax-Ukraine" agency, said that the association will work to ensure that every parishioner of the "canonical Church" is able to make the "right choice" in the upcoming 2006 elections and supports precisely those political forces that are sincere supporters of the Russian Orthodox Church.\n"Orthodox Choice" – said Yu. Yegorov – will explain to parishioners "what actually stands behind the declarations of representatives of certain political forces" and will organize them to work in the elections "from observers at polling stations to members of election commissions." According to him, the political allies of the Moscow Patriarchate are the "Derzhava" party, the Party of Regions, the Ruskyi Bloc, the "Soyuz" party and the Communist Party of Ukraine.\nThe press secretary of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Abbot Yevstratiy, commenting on this event, noted that the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate and the political forces of Russia standing behind it did not draw the proper conclusions from the results of last year's presidential elections and continue to intend to use the UOC MP and the authority of Orthodoxy for political purposes.\n"This organization was created not to defend the interests of believers, but to impose on them the political choice made in the Moscow Patriarchate – believes Father Yevstratiy. – If in the 2004 presidential elections political campaigning was conducted directly on behalf of the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, now the forces that support and finance the activities of Lukiyanyk's Union of Brotherhoods or other similar pseudo-church organizations have decided to act more subtly. But one way or another, these political forces have shown a desire to again speculate with the name and authority of Orthodoxy, exchanging it for temporary political dividends."\nInstead, the Kyiv Patriarchate does not plan to participate in campaign activities and thereby violate the law, because believers go to churches to pray to God, not to listen to campaigning. Ukrainian voters have proven that they themselves are capable of determining their own political preferences and defending their choice. "Our Church will pray for fair elections and for those who will govern our state to act for the good of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people" – emphasized Abbot Yevstratiy.\nBishop Mykhail of Lutsk and Volyn believes that the creation of "Orthodox Choice," a kind of "political wing" of the UOC MP, is another portion of discrediting Orthodoxy, another, and moreover undisguised, demonstration of disrespect, hatred and aggressiveness of the Russian Orthodox Church toward Ukrainian Orthodox believers who do not wish to be in its fold. At the same time, the appearance of this association, according to Vladyka Mykhail, is a second chance for insight for those unfortunate Russified Ukrainians who, being under the jurisdiction of the MP, still, even thanks to the Orange Revolution, have not realized that they are merely an instrument in the hands of the Russian state and its Church for carrying out the spiritual occupation of Ukraine and satisfying imperial ambitions.