Russian Orthodox Propaganda Labels Patriarch Bartholomew as ‘Antichrist in Cassock’

Russia’s Intelligence Service Calls Ecumenical Patriarch “Devil in the Flesh” in Extraordinary Statement

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has issued a remarkably hostile official statement against Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, abandoning traditional intelligence terminology in favor of theological condemnation. The January 12 press release represents one of the most extreme public statements from a Russian intelligence agency in the post-Soviet era.

In the statement, the SVR accused Patriarch Bartholomew of working deliberately to dismantle Russian influence throughout the Orthodox world, claiming he has “turned his dark gaze on the Baltic states” after having “‘dismembered’ Orthodox Ukraine.” The intelligence agency went so far as to call the Ecumenical Patriarch a “devil in the flesh” who is collaborating with “local nationalists and neo-Nazis” to push Russian Orthodoxy out of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The rhetoric employed by Russia’s premier foreign intelligence service—the institutional successor to the Soviet KGB—suggests profound insecurity rather than confidence, as it frames religious developments in starkly geopolitical terms. Moscow continues to view the 2018 independence granted to Ukraine’s Orthodox Church not as a legitimate religious choice made by Ukrainians but as a hostile act aimed directly at Russian interests.

The SVR statement follows familiar patterns in Kremlin conspiracy narratives by implicating British intelligence services, claiming they actively support Patriarch Bartholomew while “stoking Russophobic sentiment across Europe.” The intelligence agency described the Patriarch as “mired in the mortal sin of schism” and labeled him the “Constantinopolitan Antichrist.”

According to the SVR, the Ecumenical Patriarch’s alleged campaign extends beyond the Baltics into Central and Eastern Europe. The agency expressed particular concern about Montenegro, where it claims Bartholomew intends to grant autocephaly (independence) to the unrecognized Montenegrin Orthodox Church—a move Russia perceives as threatening its relationship with the Serbian Orthodox Church, one of Moscow’s few remaining reliable partners in the region.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which holds the status of “first among equals” in Orthodox Christianity as the mother church from which most Eastern Orthodox branches originated, has dismissed the accusations. In its response, the Patriarchate stated it would not be deterred from its mission by “imaginative scenarios, fake news, insults, and fabricated information” from Russia.

The controversy highlights the Kremlin’s fundamental approach to religion as an instrument of state power rather than a spiritual community. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has long functioned as an extension of Russian influence abroad and a source of soft power. Current Russian Patriarch Kirill, who according to Swiss reporting was allegedly a KGB agent in the 1970s, has consistently aligned with state policies and promoted Russia as the world’s defender of traditional Christian values against a supposedly decadent West.

This church-state relationship serves the Kremlin’s broader narrative positioning Russia as a bulwark against Western “gender ideologies” and “satanism.” Russian national celebrations regularly blend military and religious themes, reinforcing the subordination of religious institutions to state interests.

The SVR’s unusually theological language comes against the backdrop of continued religious persecution in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Ukrainian government data indicates more than 600 religious sites have been damaged and dozens of clergymen killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. Despite this, Ukrainians remain committed to both political and spiritual independence from Moscow.

The 2018 decision by Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine triggered the current schism, with the Russian Orthodox Church severing ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate—a division that persists to this day and clearly continues to agitate Moscow’s political and intelligence establishment.