Late Thursday the picture of a meeting between Kirill and Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov from 2009 went viral in the blogosphere after bloggers spotted the edited photograph.
The hubbub prompted a spokesperson for Kirill to apologize on Thursday. It was "an absurd mistake of the photo department," the Moscow Patriarchate said in a statement carried by Interfax.
"It was a serious violation of our internal ethics," the statement said.
The evidently Photoshopped image was replaced with the original on the Church's website.
Kirill has claimed in the past that he does not wear a watch made by Swiss luxury brand Breguet.
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