Pope Meets Pirate

     Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church,  met with Vladimir V. "Vova" Putin, head of the Russyan Federation, the largest country /governed space in the world.  Vlad, as he is known around the Kremlin, wanted to discuss the foremost topic on his mind: the price of oil.  Ha.  He needed a little publicity with a respected prelate.  He didn't want to be seen with Bashar Assad.  No.  Too much negative baggage.   Not President Xi-too austere/rigid/Communist,etc.
     So, Il Papa(as he is known in Italia).  Papa asked  Vlad to respect the Minsk Accords.  Putin said, "What accords?" Oh, yes, those.  They spent 50 minutes in their meeting, about twice as much as the usual head of state receives.  They exchanged gifts: Pope gave a  medallion with the angel of peace.  Vlad gave a jeweled cross set with diamonds mined in Russya.  No.  Not really.  The gift from Putin was not mentioned.  Hmmm.  Maybe it was Robert Kraft's Super Bowl diamond ring Putin lifted from his guest last year.