Italy has excellent ties with Russia - despite its chilly relations with the West due to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine - head of state Sergio Mattarella and Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed during talks in Rome on Thursday, Adnkronos has learned.
During their talks, Mattarella and Putin also shared their concern over the civil war in Libya and said they feared a resurgent Islamic State jihadist group, which security officials say is regrouping after its defeat in Syria in March.
Putin is on a one-day official visit to Italy that aims to bolster economic ties with the NATO and European Union member.
