Synod of the Australian Archdiocese: The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Is Involved in the Harassment of Patriarch Bartholomew

The Synod of the Australian Archdiocese (of the Ecumenical Patriarchate) has condemned the accusations made by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) against Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, describing them as false and disgraceful.

Orthodox Times reported this, citing a decision of the Holy Synod of the Australian Archdiocese, whose meeting took place on 20 January 2026 under the chairmanship of Archbishop Makarios of Australia.

The Synod responded to an unprecedented attack by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

“The Holy Eparchial Synod condemns the impious, indecent, and false accusations brought against the respected Head of the Church with the sole aim of diminishing the authority and moral standing of His All-Holiness and of legitimising in the eyes of the public well-known machinations and deceptive practices directed against the Mother Church and the unity of the Orthodox Church,” the members of the Synod stated.

They also accused the Russian Orthodox Church of involvement in this attack, saying it acts as an instrument of the Kremlin’s foreign policy.

“This immoral attack… exposes the Moscow Patriarchate, which now openly acts as part of the state apparatus and an instrument of the Kremlin’s foreign policy in the service of the ideology of the so-called ‘Russian world,’” the statement said.

Archbishop Makarios of Australia and the Holy Eparchial Synod stated that they are praying for Patriarch Bartholomew and noted that the Ecumenical Patriarchate sacrificially serves the Local Churches throughout the world, including having done so for the Russian Church, and has received the fruits of ingratitude in return.

As LF previously reported, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service issued a press release claiming that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, described as “the devil in the flesh” and an “Antichrist,” had “turned his black eye” toward the Baltic states in order, with the support of British intelligence services, to “oust Russian Orthodoxy” and impose “puppet structures.”