Ecumenical Patriarchate's Official Response to Russian "Insults"

The Ecumenical Patriarchate responded to Russian services that a few days ago publicly accused Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of using “church jargon.” They called the head of the Patriarchate “the devil in the flesh” and “the antichrist” who works against the interests of Moscow and its allies. In particular, the Foreign Intelligence Service accused Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople of “schismatic activity in the Orthodox church space.” The agency issued a press release on January 12, calling Bartholomew “the antichrist in a cassock” and “the devil in the flesh, obsessed with the idea of ​​pushing Russian Orthodoxy out of the territory of the Baltic states.” Relying on ideological allies in the form of local nationalists and neo-Nazis, he is trying to tear the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian Orthodox Churches away from the Moscow Patriarchate, luring their priests and flocks into puppet religious structures artificially created by Constantinople. Russian services claim that he is assisted in this by British special services, which “feed Russophobic sentiments in the countries of Europe.” According to them, the “aggressive appetites” of the Patriarch of Constantinople extend to other European countries. Thus, in the press release, he is also accused of intending to grant autocephaly to the Montenegrin Orthodox Church in order to “deal a blow to the ‘particularly rebellious’ Serbian Orthodox Church” (Source: Press Bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia, 12.01.2026). The Ecumenical Patriarchate responded to the scandalous characteristics of the Russian services with a statement and indicated that it is aware that the origin of all these attacks is rooted in its interference in the Ukrainian church situation and the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The response of the Ecumenical Patriarchate states that the mother church expresses its deep sorrow over the targeted attack of the Russian state services against the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, while at the same time choosing not to take the path of direct confrontation. Fener reminds that it is also the mother church for Russia and connects the escalation of the attacks with the historic decision of 2018 to grant autocephaly to Ukraine. “The mother church of Constantinople, which is also the mother of the Russian Church, expresses its deep sorrow over the new Russian attack on the person of His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which this time was undertaken by the state services of the country”. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has consciously taken a position of silence in the face of the countless insults coming from both ecclesiastical and political centers in Moscow – a line it has decided to follow in the present case: “Since 2018, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate took the decision to grant autocephalous status to the Church in Ukraine, the mother church has avoided commenting on the countless similar attacks coming from both ecclesiastical and political centers and individuals in Russia. It holds the same position today.” The response of Constantinople focuses on challenging the credibility of the accusations attributed to propaganda mechanisms. At the same time, they send a message in all directions that such practices and insults are not able to discourage the Ecumenical Patriarchate: “Fantastic scenarios, fake news, insults and fabricated information from all kinds of propagandists do not discourage the Ecumenical Patriarchate from continuing its ministry and its ecumenical mission.” In Bulgaria, there are also clearly defined political and church circles whose main goal is to always and unconditionally present the Ecumenical Patriarch in a negative light, striving in this way to instill sympathy and support among religious people for Moscow and its policy as the “healthy alternative to Fener”. Their activity increased especially much after the visit of the Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil and metropolitans to Fener and their concelebration with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, during which the diptych was the name of the primate of the autocephalous OCU, Metropolitan of Kiev Epiphanius, who is not recognized by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, is also mentioned.