Vladimir Putin and Pope Francis met personally again, their previous meeting was in 2015. The Russian leader cultivates friendship with the Holy See in an attempt to get one over on EU.
Pope Francis invited Mr Putin to Vatican, and the Russian President was late, again. Despite Putin’s being 50 minutes late, the pair spoke for 50 minutes. The recent audience with the US President Donald Trump was much shorter, just 29 minutes.
Two powerful men discussed the issues of peace, President Putin struck up his friendship with the Pope in 2013 when Francis wrote an open letter to the Russian leader, who was chairing the G20, telling him he opposed US military intervention in Syria.
The ties between Russia and Vatican
Mr Putin’s Christian faith has drawn the pair together, with the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. This papal representative is going to fly to Moscow on Sunday to meet Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Cardinal Parolin will be in the Russian capital for four days in the first visit of its kind since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. The Kremlin hopes it will pave the way for the Pope Francis to visit, that would be a really great event in the history of both churches, Catholic and Christian.
