Istanbul, January 14, 2026
Photo: goarch.org
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service issued a statement on January 12 calling Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople an “antichrist in a cassock” and a “devil incarnate,” accusing him of schismatic activity aimed at displacing Russian Orthodoxy from the Baltic states.
The statement says that Pat. Bartholomew, guilty of “dismembering Orthodox Ukraine,” is now focused on the Baltic countries, working with British intelligence services to establish parallel church structures.
The Russian intelligence service further alleges that the Patriarch’s ambitions extend to Eastern Europe, claiming he intends to grant autocephaly to the schismatic “Montenegrin Orthodox Church” to strike against the Serbian Orthodox Church. The statement compares Pat. Bartholomew to false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
In response, the Patriarchate of Constantinople issued a statement expressing “deepest sorrow” over this new attack against the Patriarch by Russian state services. The statement notes that the Patriarchate has refrained from commenting on numerous such attacks from Russian ecclesiastical and political centers and persons since 2018, when it granted autocephalous status to the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” which recognized as schismatic by the vast majority of the Orthodox world.
Constantinople’s response states that “the imaginative scenarios, the fake news, the insults, and the fabricated information of propagandists of every kind” do not discourage the Patriarchate from continuing its ministry and ecumenical mission.
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The statement from the Russian intelligence service:
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople: “Antichrist in a Cassock”
The Press Bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation reports that, according to information received, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who dismembered Orthodox Ukraine, continues his schismatic activity throughout the Orthodox world. Now he has turned his black eye toward the Baltic countries. This “devil incarnate” is obsessed with the idea of displacing Russian Orthodoxy from the territory of the Baltic states, establishing in its place church structures that are completely controlled by the Phanar.
He is being supported in every way in this by British intelligence services, which are actively fueling Russophobic sentiments in European countries. At their instigation, Bartholomew, mired in the mortal sin of schism, has found common ground with the authorities of the Baltic states in his desire to sow discord in the Russian Orthodox world. Relying on ideological allies in the form of local nationalists and neo-Nazis, he is attempting to tear the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Orthodox Churches away from the Moscow Patriarchate by luring their clergy and faithful into puppet religious structures artificially created by Constantinople.
The aggressive appetites of the “Constantinopolitan antichrist” aren’t limited to Ukraine and the Baltics; through his treachery he is gradually covering the lands of Eastern Europe as well. In order to strike against the “especially obstinate” Serbian Orthodox Church, he intends to grant autocephaly to the unrecognized “Montenegrin Orthodox Church.”
In Church circles they note that Bartholomew is literally tearing apart the living Body of the Church. In this he resembles the false prophets spoken of in the Sermon on the Mount which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
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The statement from the Patriarchate of Constantinople:
The Mother Church of Constantinople—Mother also of the Russian Church itself—expresses its deepest sorrow over the new Russian attack against the person of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which was unleashed this time by state services of the country.
Since 2018, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided to grant autocephalous status to the Church of Ukraine, the Mother Church has refrained from commenting on the countless similar attacks that have come from either ecclesiastical or political centers and persons in Russia. It does the same today.
The imaginative scenarios, the fake news, the insults, and the fabricated information of propagandists of every kind do not discourage the Ecumenical Patriarchate from continuing its ministry and ecumenical mission.
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