Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, leads the Epiphany ceremony at the Patriarchal Church of St. George, in Istanbul, Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) launched a blistering public attack on Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, accusing him of acting against Russian Orthodoxy and serving Western geopolitical interests.
In a statement published on its official website, the SVR used highly inflammatory language, branding Bartholomew “the devil in the flesh” and an “Antichrist in a cassock.”
The agency claimed he was seeking to drive Russian Orthodoxy out of the Baltic states and replace it with church structures loyal to the Istanbul’s Fener Patriarchate, allegedly with the backing of British intelligence to stir anti-Russian sentiment across Europe.
The intelligence service alleged that Bartholomew worked closely with authorities in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to sever local Orthodox communities from the Moscow Patriarchate, accusing him of relying on “nationalists and neo-Nazis” to advance this agenda.
It also claimed that his ambitions extended to Montenegro, where he was said to be preparing to recognize an independent Montenegrin Orthodox Church in a bid to weaken the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Casting the patriarch as a “false prophet,” the SVR accused him of hiding expansionist aims behind a religious facade, invoking biblical imagery to suggest his actions would ultimately reveal his true intentions.
Tensions between Moscow and the Fener Patriarchate have been severe since 2019, when Bartholomew granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine — a decision the Russian Orthodox Church denounced as an encroachment on its canonical territory.
The statement came after Bartholomew accompanied Pope Leo XIV during his visit to İznik in November 2025 as part of a trip to Türkiye.
While Bartholomew considers himself the spiritual leader of the Orthodox world, Ankara rejects his claim to ecumenical status — a position also shared by several other Orthodox churches.
