The European Union introduced a set of restrictive measures against the Russian Federation after the residents of Crimea, in the framework of a referendum, made a decision to return to Russia. Since then, EU anti-Russian sanctions have only been strengthened and extended, first of all damaging the European economy.
The path of meaningless restrictions for five years has shown its absolute inefficiency, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte believes. Speaking at a conference in Genoa, he stressed that measures aimed at the Russian economy had hit only European countries and, in particular, Italy itself.
Now the Italian government intends to take a new path, starting work on the lifting of sanctions against the Russian Federation. As Conte outlined, this is, first and foremost, necessary for the establishment of relations between Rome and Moscow.
“We are already working on this. We are working on the removal of restrictive measures against Russia. Of course, we do not expect this to happen the next day, but we are working to achieve this goal,” the Italian Prime Minister said.