The following letter was distributed to a list of recipients in Washington DC by Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Partners LLP in response to a series of false claims and disinformation issued by Steven Moore, an activist with the Ukraine Freedom Project. A full PDF of the annexes is available to download here.
30 August 2024
Re: Email of Steven Moore Regarding Ukrainian Orthodox Church
It has come to my attention that you recently received an email from Steven Moore of the Ukraine Freedom Project, which attacks the efforts of our law firm, Amsterdam & Partners LLP, and our defense of our client, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), from an ongoing and systematic attack being perpetrated by the authorities in Ukraine. This attack on religious freedom violates both the domestic constitution of Ukraine and the international covenants to which it is bound. Ukraine has now passed legislation that will ban the religious practices of the UOC. Priests of the Church are being arrested on false charges and offered as barter in exchange for prisoners of war. Parishioners are being harassed, and their parish churches are being illegally expropriated and transferred to the government’s preferred branch of Orthodoxy. As a result of this violent campaign against the UOC, my law firm has written to the President of Ukraine to put him on notice that his government is at serious risk of committing crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Steven Moore is no authority on the UOC and Orthodoxy in Ukraine or anywhere else, and his email contains numerous factual inaccuracies and libelous claims that I wish to address (see the annex to this letter). Steven Moore makes a point that his status as an American citizen somehow strengthens his wild claims. Frankly, his citizenship is irrelevant, but Mr. Moore is completely wrong about what he asserts is the “American perspective” of the situation. As an American law firm, we know the American perspective on this issue, as well as any issue where human freedom is harmed by tyranny and oppression: to fight to uphold those freedoms. This is why our law firm, and our client have joined the Ukrainian and American people against the oppressive aggression of the Russian Federation. But just because Ukraine is under attack by a tyrant does not give Ukraine a free pass to strip the human rights and freedoms of her people at home, including the right to free practice of religion. I wholeheartedly agree with Pope Francis’s public statement on the ban of the UOC: “please, let no Christian Church be abolished directly or indirectly. Churches are not to be touched!”
I categorically reject Steven Moore’s libelous claim that my work is funded in any way by Russia or the Russian Orthodox Church. I remain banned from Russia for defending the political opposition in that country, and I have publicly denounced Russia’s unlimited aggression against Ukraine. My primary concern is to defend the fundamental right of free Ukrainian people to pursue their religious and spiritual lives without interference or persecution from their government. This attack on the Church violates both domestic and international law on the freedom of religion and belief, and it amounts to a collective punishment of innocent Ukrainian citizens.
Steven Moore’s assertion that the UOC is little more than a propaganda tool of the Russian state is unsubstantiated, false and offensive to its worshippers. The UOC is a one-thousand-year-old Christian denomination, and its adherents represent some of the most devout sections of Ukrainian society. Moreover, the UOC has severed ties with the Russian Orthodox Church and has denounced Russia’s propaganda and its war on Ukraine. My defense of the UOC is supported by significant historical and theological research, as well as fact-finding missions in Ukraine, and it is informed by the advice of leading scholars of the Orthodox faith. Moreover, the concerns I have raised are supported by a range of respected international figures and organizations. Apart from Pope Francis, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner, the Church of England, the Norwegian Human Rights NGO, Forum 18, and the World Council of Churches have all made known their opposition to the attack on religious freedom in Ukraine.
While we appreciate Mr. Moore’s organization’s 501(c)3 status that was granted in June on the basis that it was receiving funds predominantly from the public, we doubt his expertise on Orthodoxy, the deteriorating state of religious freedom on the ground in Ukraine, law or frankly, anything he purports to be an authority on. His statements align with Ukrainian ultra-nationalist propaganda and are not the words of an objective observer of human rights and rule of law.
I provide a point-by-point rebuttal of Steven Moore’s email in the annex to this letter, which exposes his many falsehoods and misrepresentations. I urge you to consider the facts presented in this letter carefully, as well as the material made publicly available on savetheuoc.com. I also urge you to engage with those international figures and organizations that are fighting to raise awareness about the attack on the UOC. The United States has a duty to support Ukraine during its existential struggle against Russian aggression. However, this must not come at the cost of suppressing religious freedom, and I am calling on Congress to hold Ukraine to account for its efforts to destroy the UOC.
Robert R. Amsterdam
Founding Partner
AMSTERDAM & PARTNERS LLP