The Kremlin announced that “in his Christmas and New Year greetings to His Holiness Pope Francis, the President [Vladimir Putin] noted that despite the pandemic-related challenges, Russia and the Holy See maintained a constructive dialogue based on similar approaches to key problems of the day.
Putin also “expressed confidence that Russia and the Vatican would jointly step up their efforts to uphold humanistic values and moral principles in international politics and promote communication between different religions in the interest of strengthening peace and stability on the planet,” the Kremlin added.