Metropolitan Emmanuel of the Patriarchate of Constantinople calls the Russian Orthodox Church an instrument of Kremlin propaganda.
“Absolutely. I believe that the way they communicate, let us say about politics and the Church, serves a single purpose, and that is not what we do,” the hierarch, who was on a visit to Vilnius, told the agency Baltic News Service. “Our ministry is devoted to the community, religious freedom, and the rejection of any aggression.”
This is how the Constantinople cleric commented on a report prepared at the beginning of this year by Russian special services about Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, in which he is accused of dividing the Orthodox faithful, first in Ukraine and now in the Baltic states, reports LRT.
“We are not concerned. They threaten us, but they threaten everyone as well. We are not afraid of any threats from Russian propaganda,” Metropolitan Emmanuel said. “The Church of Constantinople is the mother church and even the mother church of the Moscow Patriarchate.”
Meanwhile, the State Security Department of Lithuania has recorded more active operations by Russian services in this sphere. As intelligence officials told BNS, the Kremlin is exerting pressure on the Baltic states and falsely claims that Orthodox believers are being persecuted there and that the Lithuanian Orthodox Archdiocese subordinate to the Moscow Patriarch is being discriminated against.
The Exarchate of Constantinople was restored in Lithuania in 2023 after nearly 300 years. At the same time, it received financial support from the state, and premises in Vilnius that had not been used for many years were transferred to the church structure.
The creation of a new Orthodox community began after a conflict between several clergymen and the Lithuanian Orthodox Archdiocese subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate. The latter claimed that they had committed canonical offenses and were therefore defrocked.
Nevertheless, Constantinople concluded that this occurred not because of violations of church rules, but because of their position on the issue of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and restored them to their clerical rank.
As previously reported by LF, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia issued a press release stating that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, described as “the devil in the flesh” and “the antichrist,” had “cast his black eye” on the Baltic states in order, with the support of British intelligence services, to “drive out Russian Orthodoxy” and install “puppet structures.”
According to LF, the Synod of the Australian Archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate condemned the accusations by Russia’s SVR against Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, calling them false and disgraceful.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stated in an interview with the newspaper Ta Nea Savvatokyriako that he is not frightened by the dirty Russian slander directed against him and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, noting that it is Russians who should fear Judgment Day, if they still believe in God.
