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.
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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.
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I’m thinking that the Baltic churches may have the upper hand against Russian intelligence when it comes to theological debate.