The genesis of the current escalation dates back to 2018, erstwhile the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople granted autocephalia to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. As
OrthodoxObserver.org points out, Constantinople has since become the mark of countless attacks from church and political circles in the Russian Federation. According to
Ekathimerini.com and Neos Kosmos, Russia considered this decision to undermine its historical function and strike into the Russian spiritual sphere. The effect was clear: the Russian Orthodox Church lost its monopoly of jurisdiction in Ukraine and the Russian state lost 1 of the key tools of political influence. From that point on, the dispute ceased to be purely theological and began to become strategic.
