The head of the Orthodox church has responded to the claims from the Kremlin, claiming that he is not the Antichrist.
Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of over 300 million Christians, has rejected numerous allegations from Moscow, including spreading ‘fake news’, as well as working with British spies.
Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency had raised concerns over Bartholomew, who is situated in Istanbul, over his links with British secret services, with the leader sowing discord within the Orthodox Church.
In a statement to The Times, the SVR wrote: “This devil incarnate is obsessed with the idea of driving Russian Orthodoxy out of the territory of the Baltic countries.
“The Constantinopolitan Antichrist… is mired in the mortal sin of schism…and is literally tearing apart the living Body of the Church.”
Following the 2021 invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, the UK government have since enforced sanctions on Russian spies over ‘malicious activity.’
Despite the Orthodox church operating autonomously across the globe, 85-year-old Bartholomew is recognised as “first among equals”.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate, the church that is headed by Bartholomew, has not mentioned explicitly what the SVR allegations were in detail.
However, in a statement, they said that it is just the latest in “imaginative scenarios, fake news, insults and fabricated information by Kremlin propaganda.
Bartholomew’s battle with the Russian Orthodox Church isn’t a new thing, with the leader previously criticising their support for the war in Ukraine, saying that “Orthodoxy doesn’t support war, violence, [or] terrorism.”
As well as angering the Kremlin back in 2018 when he granted self-governing status, also referred to as autocephaly, to a national Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
One of President Putin’s closest allies, the SVR headed by Sergei Naryshkin, also accused the Orthodox leader of “dismembering Orthodox Ukraine.”
It has also previously been claimed that Bartholomew had been planning to grant autocephaly to the Montenegrin Orthodox Church to undermine the Serbian Orthodox Church, a Russian ally.
Following his career as a former KGB officer, Putin has made it increasingly clear that Russia are engaged in a battle against the Ukrainian and Western “satanism”.
Off the back of the celebration of Christmas by Russian Orthodox Christians on the 7th of January, Putin told children in a church service that the war in neighbouring Ukraine was a ‘holy mission’.
