President of Russia Vladimir Putin hopes Italy will fight for the restoration of full-fledged relations with the EU and Russia and will help convince the new authority of the block that anti-Moscow sanctions were counterproductive, as he said at a press conference after talks with Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Rome, as Reuters reported.
“We hope that Italy will consistently and clearly speak out about its position (on improving ties) and battle for what was said in public many times, namely for the complete return to normal relations between Russia and Europe as a whole,” he said.
Putin noted that Russia observed Italy’s efforts on improvement of the ties with EU and Moscow, but it realized that its space for political maneuver is restricted by several aspects.
“The 28-nation EU slapped economic sanctions on Russia in 2014 following its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and its support for pro-Russian separatists battling Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine,” the news agency reports.
