
Barely a few days after Europe’s most powerful leaders presented a common front on Russian sanctions; President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia landed in Italy and met privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican, his second audience with the pope in the past 18 months.

Russian president Vladimir Putin waded into the FIFA scandal by accusing the United States of interfering in FIFA affairs after the US Justice Department ordered Swiss police to arrest seven senior FIFA officials on Wednesday. They were among nine current and former FIFA officials indicted.

The cooperation agreements recently signed by Argentina with Russia could be a Buenos Aires' response to the situation with the disputed Falkland Islands territories, former Russian ambassador to Argentina Evgeny Astakhov told the Russian news agency, Sputnik International on Friday.

Russia and Argentina signed agreements which amounted to an all-encompassing strategic partnership during Argentine President Cristina Fernandez visit to Moscow, which ended on Thursday with the meeting at the Kremlin with her counterpart Vladimir Putin.

President Cristina Fernandez, CFK, on an official visit to Russia met at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin and praised Moscow’s support to Argentina in the dispute with the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands as well as in the legal battle against speculative funds suing the country over its defaulted bonds.

“Argentina is a country where it is worth investing in and producing, not only because of its natural resources, also because of the human resources we have” said president Cristina Fernández in Moscow on an official visit to Russia. She praised the “recovery of Argentina's flag carrier that allows connectivity among all the zones in the country, not only the richest ones.”

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is leaving this week for an official visit to Russia and controversy over the agreements to be signed has erupted following the publication of a letter in a Sunday newspaper signed by a group of former Energy secretaries who claim the accords compromise Argentina with a foreign country in the execution of highly costly works, like it was done with China”.

Argentina 'never had in consideration' the possibility of purchasing fighter aircraft from Russia, such as the Sukhoi Su-24, to replace the aging French Mirages to be decommissioned by the end of the year, said Defense minister Agustín Rossi.

A statement from UK Defense secretary Michael Fallon relative to the Falkland Islands' garrison is expected sometime this week, according to reports in the British media. The Falklands' military response capacity has been a matter of much ongoing debate among analysts and former officers, as Argentina allegedly is involved in increased military expenditure.

Russia has more claim to Crimea than Britain has to the Falkland Islands, a senior Russian lawmaker insisted Sunday as London again denounced Moscow's “illegal annexation” of the peninsula.