Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the United States [2] is responsible for the crisis in world Orthodoxy, reports tsargrad.tv [3].

“The United States of America directly had a hand in the current crisis in Orthodoxy,” Lavrov said. “They had a special mechanism formed – a special representative for freedom of religion, who was not really dealing with freedom. <...> He actively encouraged and financed the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew so that he would pursue a line towards a schism, including in Ukraine.”

Earlier, US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt expressed concern [4] about "efforts to reverse the Tomos for the OCU", which, he said, Russia is making. The Primate of the Greek Church spoke about cooperation with the US Ambassador [5] on the issue of recognizing the OCU.