Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message of congratulations to Pope Francis on the eleventh anniversary of his election to the papacy.
This was announced by the Russian embassy to the Holy See, cited by Tass, underlining that there remain "close contacts with representatives of the Vatican" and "direct contacts between the ambassador, Ivan Soltanovsky and the Pope".
The embassy claims that Pope Francis is "a true and honest defender" of "peace" and "one of the few leaders with an honest strategic vision of world problems".
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