Russia should be allowed to re-join the G8 group of nations and international economic sanctions should be lifted against the world power, Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte said on Monday.
"We need to have (Russian president Vladimir) Putin at the G8 so we can tackle and solve problems that are currently intractable because we are not all the discussion table," Conte told reporters in Rome ahead of his visit to Moscow this week.
Conte said there were "traditional relations and major economic ties" with Russia that under Putin's leadership could be relaunched and new commercial partnerships be forged between companies.
On the issue of the sanctions imposed on Russia after its 2014 invasion of Crimea, Conte said: "Our position is clear. They are a means to end."
"But you don't solve problems with trade restrictions."
Italy's powerful deputy prime minister and interior minister has pledged to get sanctions against Russia lifted through “good manners, numbers and the art of democracy".
But Salvini has also warned that Italy's populist coalition government is “not scared” of using its veto powers in the EU as a “last resort” to push the bloc into ending sanctions against Russia.
The measures include financial restrictions, an arms exports embargo, travel bans and freezes of the assets of named individuals and organisations.
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