The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity and "first among equals" among the world's roughly 300 million Orthodox believers, has dismissed recent vicious attacks from Russia's foreign intelligence service (SVR) as "fake news" and Kremlin propaganda.
In a strongly worded statement published on its website, the SVR branded the 85-year-old Patriarch, who is based in Istanbul (historically Constantinople), as the "antichrist in a cassock," "devil incarnate," and a "devil in the flesh." The agency accused him of ongoing "schismatic" efforts to undermine Russian Orthodoxy, claiming he is backed by British secret services to stir division among believers. Specifically, it alleged he is obsessed with expelling Russian Orthodox influence from the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and replacing it with structures loyal to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The SVR further claimed Bartholomew plans to grant autocephaly (self-governing status) to a Montenegrin Orthodox Church to weaken the Serbian Orthodox Church, a close Russian ally.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate responded without directly quoting the inflammatory labels, describing the SVR's claims as part of a ongoing pattern of "imaginative scenarios, fake news, insults, and fabricated information" from Kremlin sources. It affirmed that such attacks would not deter the Patriarchate from its pastoral ministry and ecumenical mission.
Tensions between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate have simmered for years, escalating sharply in 2018 when Bartholomew granted autocephaly to an independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine. This move, opposed by Moscow, led the Russian Orthodox Church to sever ties with Constantinople and label it a major schism—the worst in Orthodoxy in nearly a millennium.
Patriarch Bartholomew has openly criticized the Russian Orthodox Church's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Early in the conflict, he stated that "Orthodoxy doesn’t support war, violence, [or] terrorism." In contrast, Moscow Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has portrayed Russian soldiers' deaths in Ukraine as sins forgiven by God and blamed Ukraine's suffering on events like gay pride parades in Kyiv.
Putin, a former KGB officer in the atheist Soviet era, has increasingly framed Russia's actions—including the war in Ukraine—as a defense against Western "satanism." On Russian Orthodox Christmas (January 7), he described the invasion as a "holy mission" during a church event with children.
The SVR is led by Sergei Naryshkin, one of Putin's closest confidants, underscoring how intertwined state security and religious narratives have become in Moscow's rhetoric.
Orthodox Christian Christmas: Russia, Ukraine, Serbia among countries celebrating on January 7
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