Russian authorities are engaging in a new attempt to tarnish the name of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Patriarch Bartholomew himself.
Specifically, the Russian news agency TASS reported an announcement from the Russian intelligence service SVR stating that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew “is attempting to sow discord within the Russian Orthodox world by finding common ground with the authorities of the Baltic countries.”
The SVR further accuses the Ecumenical Patriarch of intending to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Montenegro in retaliation against the “particularly stubborn Orthodox Church of Serbia,” as they put it.
For those who have been following ecclesiastical developments in recent years, this announcement by the Russian authorities should come as no surprise.
After Patriarch Bartholomew recognized the Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2019, the Russian Church broke Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople and other Churches that recognized the new Church.
Since then, especially after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Russian officials, both ecclesiastical and secular, have made every effort to undermine the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Patriarch himself.
Today, the Russian intelligence services announced that the Ecumenical Patriarch is collaborating closely with the “special services” of the United Kingdom, aiming to expel the Russian Orthodox Church. The British intelligence services actively support him by fueling Russophobic sentiments in European countries.
The Russian intelligence services add that “the Ecumenical Patriarch relies on his ideological allies, represented by local nationalists and neo-Nazis, in an effort to separate the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Orthodox Churches from the Moscow Patriarchate, luring priests and their flocks into puppet religious structures artificially created by Constantinople.”
They speak of “the aggressive attitude of the Ecumenical Patriarch, which is not limited to Ukraine and the Baltic countries. His insidious behavior is gradually spreading to Eastern European countries.”
Finally, the Russian intelligence services claim that “Bartholomew is literally dismantling the living Body of the Church.”
Translated by Ioanna Georgakopoulou
