Crimea still is Christian and much better off as a part of Orthodox Russia.
So you are saying Russia having a deep water port is better for over a billion Christians over the world and the 200 million Christians in the US will benefit with Russia having a no ice port with access to the Mediterranean as better for us? Do you think Putin won't push the button on Christians? Jews?
In my mind, having a firewall separating atheist Russia from the rest of the world is a good thing. What pope Francis is drawn to is another fellow traveler having power over the west, not Jesus. I fail to see any Christianity when Putin attacked innocent women and children with no mercy to gain territory. You must have missed the Russians cutting the babies out of pregnant women and hanging their bodies out of windows as they destroyed Crimea. Did you think that was a "good shot" when they shot down a passenger plane over Ukraine?( filled with Christians I might add)
Being occupied is not the same as being "part" of Orthodox Russia.
Were you born before Reagan and the Berlin Wall? Maybe you have no memory of what exactly we are talking about. Google "Russia Ukraine war" and look for pictures. It might give you an idea of what it means to be part of Russia. My daughter is 31 and has no real memory of what the whole world went through for 70 years hiding under school desks, and watching their mischief in Cuba, Africa, Europe, well, basically all over the world. The problem I see with the new pope is he is a Jesuit. He will be conflicted between politics and Jesus because most Jesuits think Jesus was a Communist. When you see trouble in S. American countries, the root of it is many times a bunch of Jesuits starting revolutions and ending up involved in murder and war crimes. Look at Venezuela and Chavez. He felt God was on his side and local priests heard his confession and fed him Eucharist right before he put bullets in hundreds of people's heads.
Francis could very well support despots thinking he is doing God's will. Pope John was instrumental( with Reagan, and Thatcher), in knocking the Soviet Union down. Just because the snake is smaller doesn't mean it's not poisonous and afraid to bite.