Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Feb. 6, 2016. Andrei Desnitsky Theologian, translator and essayist Head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis will meet in Cuba on Feb. 12. This historical meeting has been carefully orchestrated to appear casually improvised — both church leaders will be touring Latin America, and shall convene for a cup of coffee in Havana's José Martí International Airport during their flight layovers.

Over the past five years, the share of local brands in the Russian beer market has increased from 14.9 to 26.5 percent, as recession forces more consumers to opt for cheaper goods, the Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday. Large international breweries, including Carlsberg, Heineken, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Efes have seen their market share decrease over the past year, the newspaper reported.

Yevgeny Parfyonov Vladimir Milov In Russia, simultaneous investigations are rarely a coincidence. Recent developments at the behemoth Russian Railways Company are unlikely to mark an exception to that rule.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that two influential terrorist leaders have been killed in Russian air strikes in Syria, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday. A large group of Islamic State militants, along with their leader Abu Maher, were killed in air attacks around the village of Kalaz Taktani. “Abu Anas Al-Shami — leader of the terrorist group Jaysh al-Sham — was also killed in the same province,” Konashenkov said, RIA Novosti reported.

The majority of Russians think that current inflation levels are very high and are trying to cut back on spending by avoiding pricey purchases, according to a poll conducted by the state-run VTsIOM pollster, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday. The number of Russians concerned about soaring prices has risen by 5 percent since December and now constitutes 70 percent of the population, according to the poll.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos CEO, has been declared internationally wanted by Interpol's Russian bureau, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday, citing a source familiar to the case. According to an unidentified source, Interpol's Russian bureau has declared Khodorkovsky internationally wanted in connection with the murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of the Siberian oil capital Nefteyugansk in 1998.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin The owners of the street shopping pavilions subject to demolition have no right to hide behind ownership rights that have been obtained illegally, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his VKontakte social network page. The demolition of the buildings — that City Hall claims lack necessary legal paperwork — is “a good example of the fact that truth, heritage and history of our country cannot be sold in Russia,” Sobyanin said in a post late Wednesday.

Самостро́й: illegal construction Yevgeny Parfyonov Michele A. Berdy If you've been on a 36-hour flight or locked in a cabin in the woods, you might have missed the news that almost 100 buildings were destroyed in Moscow overnight. But it wasn't a war or terrorist attack. It was the Moscow government putting your tax rubles to work. Because this was a special operation, the city government and media are using special terminology to describe it.

State Duma Deputy Dmitry Gudkov has sent a letter to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, asking that an investigation be opened into an attack on PARNAS opposition party leader Mikhail Kasyanov, the RBC news website reported Thursday.

In the dead of a cold January night in Ulyanovsk, a Molotov cocktail smashed through a ground floor window of a wooden house. Within seconds, the room was ablaze: curtains, blankets, and a bed containing a two-year-old baby. The child would survive — miraculously — thanks to doctors and quick actions by his grandfather, Ismail Guseinov, but was badly burned. The bomb had been thrown by a debt collector seeking repayment of a loan.

Some of the demolished pavilions used to be part of the post-90s Moscow cityscape. They sprang up during Yury Luzhkov’s 18 years as Moscow mayor. His successor Sergei Sobyanin is eager to remove the “unsightly” structures. You could hear a young woman yelling, but her voice was diluted in the sound of bulldozers, smashed glass and metal. "What are you doing?! There are people still in there! Stop it!" she said.

Russian diamond producer Alrosa has announced the discovery of a 122-carat diamond, the TASS news agency reported Thursday. The diamond — weighing 121.96 carats — was extracted by the company's Aikhal Mining unit from the Jubilee pipe in the Far East republic of Sakha, TASS reported. Alrosa's Jubilee pipe is famous for its large diamonds. Octahedral in shape, the super diamond measures 31.28 x 30.00 x 28.57 millimeters and is transparent with a slight yellowish color, Alrosa said.

The Justice Ministry has asked Moscow's Basmanny District Court to ban independent election monitor Golos, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. According to the ruling, Golos failed to present the proper documentation requested by the ministry during a probe in August 2015. The organization also changed their address without notifying the Ministry, a violation of NGO law, Vedomosti reported.

Russian business tycoon Alexander Lebedev and his son Yevgeny, owners of The Independent newspaper, are set to sell its cheap spin-off, the i newspaper, the Financial Times reported Thursday. The potential buyer of the i newspaper, British publisher Johnston Press, confirmed to the Financial Times that they are in talks with the Lebedevs. The deal is estimated to be worth $34.7 million. The date of the sale has not been set yet, the company said.

Police in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan dispersed a rally that protested the detention of an ultra-conservative Salafi mosque imam, who had been accused of recruiting fighters for Islamic State terrorist forces in Syria, the independent Kavkazsky Uzel news portal reported Wednesday. The imam from the town of Derbent was detained in connection with a separate incident: He is accused of taking captive and attempting to rape a local woman, the LifeNews portal reported.