Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople received money for the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). This was stated in an interview with American blogger Julian Dorey by former CIA officer John Kiriaku, according to the Union of Orthodox Journalists of Ukraine.
Talking about corruption schemes on In Ukraine, the former operative of the Center for Combating Terrorism, Kiriaku, also touched on the religious theme. According to him, Hillary Clinton, while still US Secretary of State, asked Patriarch Bartholomew to declare the OCU autocephalous, "so that it would no longer obey the whims of the Russian patriarch."
The head of the Fanar, according to Kiriaku, called it not the best idea.
"And Hillary allegedly said, "Will 20 million help make a decision?“ Well The Greek Orthodox Church is under the rule of neo-Ottoman Turks, so he said, "Yes, we could use 20 million." She said: "We have to transfer them to you through Ukrainian banks." „This is normal.“ The State Department is transferring 20 million, probably through USAID, to some Ukrainian bank. Ukrainians do what they usually do behind closed doors in Ukrainian banks and send 15 million to the patriarch," Kiriaku said.
According to a former CIA officer, the amount outraged the patriarch.
"He says, 'Wait, where are the other 5? It should be 20, where is 5?" And the State Department says, "Oh, we don't know anything about that. All we know is that we paid. So now you have to declare the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," John Kiriaku retold his version of events, stressing that this "immediately created a situation close to war between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."
It is noted that John Kiriaku, according to Wikipedia, was an intelligence analyst and an operational officer of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, a senior investigator of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the US Congress.
"We also note that the OCU originated in 2018, and Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. Recall, immediately after the creation of the OCU, Patriarch Bartholomew said that he did not take money for it, but received from Poroshenko is just candy," sums up the UOJ.