The OCU is initially a political project, the goal of which in the long term is to destroy Orthodoxy, said the deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop of Vladikavkaz and Alan Leonid. The report was published on the DECR website.

In the creation of the OCU as a political project, the head of the Phanar “relied and continues to rely on the structures of American state power … to consider that this is a purely church issue means to close our eyes to a completely obvious reality.”

Also, the recognition of the OCU by one or another Local Church is only a tactical task for the curators of the project.

“In the long term, the goal of the project is to destroy Orthodoxy. Victories, which can now be perceived as such, will be achieved at an exorbitant price. And the bitter consequences of the schism taking place now will affect the life of the entire Orthodox Church for many years to come, and perhaps for decades,” the hierarch noted.

“I express my firm hope that the schism in world Orthodoxy, initiated by external political forces hostile to the Church of Christ, will not last long. Today we all need to stop, seriously think about what is happening, and act not at the behest of overseas secular officials, but as the Holy Spirit prompts us, our Christian conscience and the sacred canons of the Mother Church,” the report says.