Russian Intelligence Sharply Attacks the Patriarch of Constantinople
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) issued a sharp statement against the head of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Bartholomew, calling him an "antichrist in a cassock" and accusing him of schismatic activity. The official press release claims that he allegedly "fragmented Orthodox Ukraine" and is now directing his activities towards the Baltic countries, writes The Moscow Times.
Patriarch Bartholomew
According to the SVR, Bartholomew, who is also referred to as a "devil in the flesh" in the document, seeks to push Russian Orthodoxy out of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia by creating church structures there subservient to Constantinople. Russian intelligence claims that he is supported in this by British special services, the authorities of the Baltic states, as well as local nationalists and neo-Nazis.
The SVR asserts that the patriarch is trying to detach the Orthodox churches of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia from the Moscow Patriarchate by enticing priests and believers into, as stated, artificially created marginal religious structures.
Furthermore, the statement mentions Bartholomew's intention to grant autocephaly to the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, which, according to the special service, is intended to weaken the Serbian Orthodox Church. The press release concludes with a quote from the Sermon on the Mount about false prophets who come "in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves".
Bartholomew is the head of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and holds the title of Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. In 2019, he granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which provoked strong rejection from the Russian Orthodox Church. After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Patriarch Bartholomew publicly condemned the aggression.
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