Archived link

According to Russian officials, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew – previously accused by Moscow of having “split Orthodox Ukraine” – has now allegedly turned his “dark gaze” on the Baltic states. ​ In Lithuania, a group of Orthodox Christians severed their links to Moscow following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the church’s leadership's support for the war. They established a new community under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople; Ukraine’s Orthodox community did the same in 2019. ​ On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a joint statement containing apocalyptic language about developments in Lithuania and other European countries.

...

Russian intelligence claimed that the patriarch was not merely a religious leader but a metaphysical threat — an “incarnate devil” seeking to drive Russian Orthodoxy out of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. ​ The message was criticised on social media by Gintaras Sungaila, one of the first Orthodox priests in Lithuania to announce his break from the Moscow Patriarchate.

...