Moscow shuns church leader over Ukraine

and RUSSIA’S Orthodox Church has announced that it will cut ties with its head in Istanbul in a bitter row over plans to recognise a rival branch in the pro-Western portion of Ukraine.

The Russian renunciation of ties came as the Archbishop of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, the de facto head of the Orthodox Church’s 300million Christians, looked set to approve the new Ukrainian church in a serious blow to Moscow.

Bartholomew sent two representatives to Ukraine this month, sparking fury in Russia where Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, sees Ukraine as part of a greater Russia.

The Russian church said on Friday it would no longer conduct joint services with the Patriarchate of Constantinople and Kirill, its own Patriarch, will stop mentioning Bartholomew in his prayers.

The rival Moscow Patriarchate vies for influence in Ukraine with the Kiev Patriarchate – a branch of the Orthodox Church that broke away in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union – and with other Orthodox and Catholic denominations.

The Moscow Patriarchate, the legal term for the Russian Orthodox Church, has a sizeable following in Ukraine. Kiev considers it a tool for the Kremlin to wield influence, while the Moscow Patriarchate sees itself as the only legitimate Orthodox Church in Ukraine.