Russia’s SVR Escalates Attack on Patriarch Bartholomew With Claims of Baltic Push and British Intelligence Support

Overview

• Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service issued statements on January 12 branding Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew “an antichrist in a cassock” and blaming him for “dismembering” Orthodox Ukraine.
• The SVR alleged he is working to displace Russian Orthodoxy in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia by fostering Constantinople‑aligned church structures.
• The agency claimed British intelligence supports these efforts by stoking anti‑Russian sentiment across European countries.
• The SVR asserted he intends to grant autocephaly to an unrecognized Montenegrin church as a blow to the Serbian Orthodox Church.
• The accusations, amplified by Russian state media, were presented by the SVR without independent corroboration.