By Kostas Onisenko
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that the United States is trying to limit the role of Orthodoxy in the world.
Commenting on the actions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate during a press conference, the Russian minister made statements that could be interpreted as an attack on the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Referring to the Ecumenical Patriarch, Sergey Lavrov said: “His mission, apparently, was entrusted to him by the US and they do not hide the fact that they (the US) are working very actively with him under the slogan ‘freedom of religion and religious expression.’
Bartholomew’s mission, as it seems, is to bury the influence of Orthodoxy in the modern world. I do not see any other explanation for this man’s actions,” Lavrov said.
It is recalled that recently Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has attacked the Ecumenical Patriarch, saying that the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque is a punishment from God to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for granting the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
“I do not want to express any criticism to my fellow Constantinople brother, however, unquestionably, everything that happened afterwards in Constantinople, proves the Divine Punishment. Patriarch Bartholomew let the schismatics of Kyiv in the sacred place of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, and lost the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople with its conversion into a mosque,” said Patriarch Kirill.
