Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said that it is Russia that initiated the church schism in the Orthodox world. He said this during a conversation with journalists at his residence in Istanbul, according to LB.ua.
This is reported by Glavkom.
"Our Russian brothers say that there seems to have been a split. But there is no split. If there is a schism, they themselves made it, breaking off communion with the four Churches (i.e. the Alexandrian, Greek, Cypriot and Constantinople – Ed.). No one else broke off communion or created a schism in the bosom of Orthodoxy. This schism was initiated by Russia in 2016 when the Moscow Church and – under its influence – three other churches did not arrive at the Holy and Great Cathedral in Crete.
"We all had been preparing this Council together. Until January 2016, when we had the last meeting of Orthodox Primates in Geneva, all Churches were preparing this Council. At the last moment, the Russians and three other Churches failed to arrive (Church of Antioch, Bulgarian and Georgian Churches– Ed.). Perhaps because they didn't really want such a large Council to be held under the chairmanship of the Ecumenical Patriarch," Patriarch Bartholomew said.
In June 2016, the first Pan-Orthodox Council was held in more than 1200 years. It was attended by 166 delegates from ten local Churches. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the Antiochian, Georgian, Serbian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches, did not arrive.