“Antichrist in a Cassock,” “Antichrist of Constantinople” and “Devil Incarnate” were among the terms Russia’s foreign intelligence service used to attack the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Bartholomew I, accusing him of meddling in Ukraine and trying to push the Russian Orthodox Church out of the Baltic states.

In a statement released Jan. 12, the agency, known by its Russian initials SVR, wrote: “Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who dismembered Orthodox Ukraine, continues his schismatic activities within the Orthodox Church. Now he has set his dark eye on the Baltic states. This ‘devil incarnate’ is obsessed with ousting Russian Orthodoxy from the Baltic states, establishing in its place church structures completely under the control of the Phanar,” referring to the Istanbul neighborhood where Bartholomew is headquartered.