The Cabinet of Ministers has appointed Yuriy Reshetnikov head of the State Committee of Nationalities and Religions

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at the meeting on May 13, 2009, appointed Yuriy Reshetnikov head of the State Committee of Ukraine in Matters of Nationalities and Religions. He has replaced in this position Oleksandr Sagan, who headed the committee since December 29, 2007. The Institute of Religious Freedom reported about this. Minister of the Cabinet of Ukraine Petro Krupko reported for journalists about the change in the leadership of the State Committee of Ukraine in Matters of Nationalities and Religions on Wednesday after a session of the government, whose words UNIAN shared. At the time of his appointment Yuriy Reshetnikov worked as director of the Department in Matters of Church-State Relations and Ensuring Freedom of Conscience of the State Committee of Ukraine in Matters of Nationalities and Religions. He was born on May 26, 1968, in the city of Zaporizhzhya, holds a candidate’s degree in philosophy, graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Law (now called the Yaroslav the Wise National Academy of Law) and the Odesa Theological Seminary, and holds the position of assistant head of the Christian-Democratic Union Party. As IRS reported earlier, the new leader of the committee is already a specialist in questions of the harmonization of church-state relations and ensuring freedom of conscience and religion. Yuriy Reshetnikov took part in the development of a number of bills relating to improving the conditions of activity of religious organizations, has conducted analytical research, and has spoken at many international scholarly-practical conferences as an expert. In his previous position in this committee Yuriy Reshetnikov also directed the activity of the working group at the State Committee of Ukraine in Matters of Nationalities and Religions to develop a new version of the law of Ukraine «On freedom of conscience and religious organizations.» www.irs.in.ua