"We need to get back to the key mechanism of economic cooperation — the Russian-Italian Council on Economic, Industrial and Monetary and Financial Cooperation, which held its latest session in Moscow in December 2012," Lavrov told Italian reporters.
According to the Russian foreign minister, despite the EU-imposed sanctions, "pragmatism should prevail" in the Russian-Italian relations.
Relations between Russia and the European Union went downhill in 2014, when Brussels joined Washington in accusing Moscow of fueling the Ukrainian crisis, imposing economic sanctions as a punitive measure.
The Russian authorities have refuted the allegations, warning that the Western sanctions are counterproductive. In response to the Western restrictive measures, in August 2014 Russia announced a one-year food embargo on products originating in states that imposed sanctions. The ban has since been extended for another year.
