By Kostas Onisenko
The head of the Synodal Department for Russian Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, Vladimir Legoida, attacked the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the occasion of Mike Pompeo’s meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
In particular, Legoida was annoyed by Mike Pompeo’s statement on the agreement “to consider the possibility of closer cooperation to overcome the challenges posed by Russia through malignant influence activities such as trying to co-opt the Orthodox Church.” A wry message was posted on his telegram channel against the head of US diplomacy and the Ecumenical Patriarch.
“US diplomacy is honest with its simplicity: using the Phanar for its purposes since the post-war years, it intends to ‘fight the influence’ of any other states that are unwilling to yield to the will of the State Department coming from the lips of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Referring to the Ukrainian autocephaly issue, Legoida makes a pun in Russian saying “How much does the interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine cost when the US, along with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, created a quasi-religious structure in order to exert ‘good purpose’ political influence which has plagued thousands of Ukrainian faithful.”
