DISINFO: Patriarch Bartholomew is the Russophobic Antichrist
SUMMARY
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, responsible for the schism in the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, has now decided to incite similar unrest in the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe. In their bid to oust Russian Orthodoxy from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, the schismatics have enlisted the support of British intelligence services, as well as local nationalists and neo-Nazis.
Church circles note that Bartholomew is literally tearing apart the living Body of the Church. In this way, he is like the false prophets mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount: "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. <...> By their fruits you will know them".
Patriarch Bartholomew signed the independence certificate of the non-canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) out of a non-Christian sense of revenge.
RESPONSE
Conspiracy theory based on a press release by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). See other false narratives issued by the SVR.
On 11 October 2018, following a regular synod meeting, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople reaffirmed its earlier decision to proceed with granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. During the same session, the synod also revoked Constantinople’s 332‑year‑old conditional recognition of the Russian Orthodox Church’s jurisdiction over the Ukrainian Church, which had been established in a letter dating back to 1686.
In 2023, the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew of Constantinople, ruled out any renegotiation of the status of Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church despite pressure from Russia. He is traditionally recognised as the “first among equals” by the leaders of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians, as the Patriarchate of Constantinople is the oldest of the Orthodox churches.
Although the Church in Russia is officially independent from the state, its representatives openly support the government. Around 1,000 priests of the Russian Orthodox Church (MP) have been sent to the frontlines of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and at least one priest who was killed there was posthumously honoured.
The website of the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) promotes the pro‑Kremlin false narrative that 'Ukrainians are Russians.' On 9 December 2024, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church awarded the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, First Degree.
Moscow's Liberal Orthodox priests who refused to support the war have faced persecution.
In the Baltic countries, the majority of believers are Catholic or Lutheran, while Orthodox Christians largely belong to the Russian and Belarusian minorities.
In many countries around the world, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church’s endorsement of the war, some Orthodox Christians have distanced themselves from the Moscow Patriarchate, as RFI reports.
In Lithuania, the Patriarchate of Constantinople created a new community for believers who distanced themselves from the Moscow Patriarchate, served by priests from Lithuania and Belarus. In the autumn of 2022, the Latvian Saeima voted for the independence of the Latvian Orthodox Church from the Russian Orthodox Church, a move Moscow called unconstitutional.
In 2025, the Estonian government approved a bill severing its remaining ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. The Estonian Orthodox Church had previously insisted that it was not directly subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate and emphasised that it bore no responsibility for Moscow’s statements regarding the war in Ukraine. The Church has since changed its name to the Estonian Christian Orthodox Church.
The head of the EOC, Metropolitan Yevgeny (Valery Reshetnikov), who had been appointed by the Moscow Patriarchate, was denied an extension of his residence permit in Estonia, RFI reports.
"The most scandalous part of this statement is the phrase 'he's trying to tear the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Orthodox Churches away from the Moscow Patriarchate.' It's a curious slip of the tongue. After all, the Latvian and Estonian churches have loudly declared that they have already broken away from the Moscow Patriarchate and are very independent. But Russian intelligence has competently stated that this is not the case at all," Orthodox priest Andrei Kuraev, banned from serving in Russia for "having spoken against the special military operation", wrote.
The Kremlin continues to invent false narratives to justify its war of conquest against Ukraine. One such narrative is the supposed “fight against Satan.” A fabricated 'satanic church' was allegedly 'discovered' in a Ukrainian village occupied by the Russian army, another example of manufactured propaganda.
Another long‑standing element of pro‑Kremlin disinformation is the conspiracy trope of 'blaming MI6 for everything,' which Moscow‑aligned outlets frequently recycle to frame external enemies for events of their own making.