Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on social media on Monday that an “Antichrist” was targeting Lithuania and the Baltic states. The claim was first circulated by Russia’s intelligence services in response to the emergence of a new Orthodox community that had severed its ties with Moscow.
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.
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.
“I wonder whether the clergy serving in the Moscow Patriarchate diocese in Lithuania who hold Russian citizenship will react in any way to the fact that their authorities are calling the first and most senior bishop of the Orthodox Church the Antichrist,” he said.
The Orthodox archdiocese in Lithuania, which is under the Moscow Patriarchate, said it rejected insults and stressed that it “consistently stands for peace, harmony and social unity, as an integral part of Lithuanian society”.
“Peace between confessions is also important to us, and we oppose religious wars in any form. We do not support insulting statements about any Church hierarchs, regardless of whether we agree with their views or actions. Problems that arise between Churches must be resolved canonically and through dialogue among all Orthodox believers,” the archdiocese told LRT.lt.