The Vatican has announced that the head of Catholic Church Pope Francis will receive Russian President Vladimir Putin for an audience next month. The Vatican said in a statement today that the meeting will be on 4th July.
The meeting will be the third between the two men, with Francis having received Putin most recently in 2015 when the pope urged all parties to the conflict in Ukraine to make a sincere effort for peace.
Francis first met Putin in 2013, as the Roman Catholic Church sought to improve ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Only in 2009 did the Vatican and Moscow re-establish full diplomatic ties which had been severed during Soviet times.
The Russian Orthodox Church has frequently accused the Catholic Church of proselytising in Russia, an Orthodox Christian country of 144 million.
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