Moscow's political rift with Slavic neighbours spills over into church affairs

The war between Russia and Ukraine has produced far-reaching political, economic, social, and demographic consequences far beyond their own borders, many of which are well documented. Beyond the battlefield, the conflict has deepened divisions within societies that share long histories, cultural ties, and even family connections.

Religion, particularly Eastern Orthodoxy, has emerged as another arena affected by the war and partially weaponised as a tool for waging a further rift not only between the two parties at war, but the wider Slavic world and members of the Church.

Both Russia and Ukraine are predominantly Eastern Orthodox, though each maintains its own autocephalous church with a separate religious leadership. Against this backdrop, a statement published on January 12, 2026 by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) targeting Patriarch Bartholomew marked a notable escalation in the conflict’s religious and geopolitical dimensions.

Patriarch Bartholomew, based in Istanbul, is regarded by many as the unofficial spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide. The SVR accused him of undermining Russian Orthodoxy, claiming that he “is attempting to sow discord within the Russian Orthodox world by finding common ground with the authorities of the Baltic countries,” according to the Russian state news agency TASS, which published the official statement. 

Bartholomew’s full title, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is not formally recognized by Turkish authorities. Türkiye does not recognise the ecumenical status of the Church of Constantinople, and within Türkiye, Bartholomew is legally regarded as the head of the Orthodox Greek community of the Fener district, and is therefore referred to as the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew there. He is also prohibited from engaging in political activity under Turkish law.

The Russian intelligence services claimed that the Patriarch is working closely with the United Kingdom’s “special services” in an effort to push the Russian Orthodox Church out of Europe. According to the allegation, British intelligence agencies are actively backing him by stoking Russophobic sentiment across European countries.

They further asserted that “the Ecumenical Patriarch relies on his ideological allies, represented by local nationalists and neo-Nazis, in an effort to separate the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Orthodox Churches from the Moscow Patriarchate, luring priests and their flocks into puppet religious structures artificially created by Constantinople.”

The SVR’s rhetoric went further, employing unusually harsh language.

“The ‘devil in the flesh’ is obsessed with the idea of displacing Russian Orthodoxy from the territory of the Baltic states, approving in its place church structures fully controlled by (Fener),” the agency said.

The statement also alleged that the Patriarchate intended to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Montenegro, framing this as retaliation against what it described as the “particularly stubborn Orthodox Church of Serbia.”

On January 13, 2026, the Patriarchate issued a restrained response, emphasising that the latest attack originated from Russian state agencies rather than solely from church institutions. An analysis published by Modern Diplomacy noted that a dispute rooted in ecclesiastical matters has increasingly moved into the realm of state infrastructure, broadening its scope from canon law disagreements to questions of geopolitical alignment.

Although the SVR’s language represents an escalation in tone, it follows years of deteriorating relations. Ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate were severed in 2019 after Bartholomew granted independence to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a decision Moscow views as a violation of canonical jurisdiction.

Since then, and particularly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Russian ecclesiastical and secular officials have persistently sought to undermine both the Patriarchate and Patriarch Bartholomew himself.

By Nazrin Sadigova