RF MFA: Creation of OCU was dictated to Patriarch Bartholomew by USA

Sergei Lavrov. Photo: ria.ru

On July 24, 2021, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, said that the creation of the OCU was not initiated by Patriarch Bartholomew but was dictated by the United States, reports RIA Novosti.

According to the head of the Foreign Office, the creation of the OCU was presented as "a movement for every Orthodox people to have the right to choose." But, the official says, "this is not just an initiative of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople".

“It is directly dictated by the United States. By and large, they do not hide it. The Special Envoy for Religious Freedom, appointed during the last US administration, did things that were exactly the opposite to his mandate: he undermined religious freedom by imposing organizational parameters (in bureaucratic terms) on various Local Churches,” Lavrov stressed.

According to him, the Envoy for Freedom of Religion was destroying the unity of the Orthodox of Russia and Ukraine, creating in Ukraine "a schismatic, powerless (in fact) church".

He was also destroying the unity of the Antiochian Church, “trying to tear the Lebanese Orthodox Christians away from it,” and “the same is happening with respect to the canonical territory of the Serbian Orthodox Church”, added the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

According to Sergei Lavrov, Washington directly manipulates the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

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