Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the Italian prime minister that the sanctions currently imposed on Russia costing the Italian economy millions of dollars, and was encouraged by Pope Francis to make a "sincere effort" to bring peace to Ukraine during his trip to Italy on Wednesday.
Putin spent yesterday morning speaking with Italian Premier Matteo Renzi in Milan, whilst touring the Russian pavilion at the world's fair. According to local Italian press, Putin and Renzi discussed the EU sanctions placed on Russia and their potential damaging effect upon both the Italian economy and the two countries' close relationship.
Putin told Renzi that sanctions had cost the Italian companies at least €1bn, with bilateral trade having declined by 10% in 2014 and 25% already in the first quarter of this year.
Later on Wednesday Putin travelled to the Apostolic Palace in Rome to meet with Pope Francis - the two leader's first meeting since the G20 summit in Moscow back in 2013. Although Putin arrived one hour late for the meeting it was reported that the Pope and Putin spent 50 minutes discussing the crisis in Iraq and Syria and also the conflict in Ukraine.
Gifts were exchanged on arrival to the Palace, with the Argentinian pontiff presenting Putin with an "angel of peace" medallion, and the Pope receiving a cushion which was embroidered with an image of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in gold thread.
The meeting involved discussions about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and mutual agreements over "the importance of rebuilding an atmosphere of dialogue" between Ukraine and Russia, emphasising that all parties must "commit to applying the Minsk [ceasefire] accords", according to an official statement released by the Vatican.
The Russian president had a particularly close relationship with the Italy's former president Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, a regular visitor to Russia, has pledged his Forza Italia party will introduce a motion in Italy to force the government to stop sanctioning Russia if he is is successful in the next elections.
Italy is Russia's third largest trading partner after China and Germany and there are no Italian ministers included on the 89 names on Russia's blacklist who are barred from travelling to Russia.
Speaking with the Guardian of the close relationship between Putin and Italy, Giancarlo Aragona, a former Italian ambassador to Russia said that Italy had "always maintained a dialogue with Russia".
However, he went on to insist that this relationship "did not contradict the fact that Italy was fully committed to the European policy in relation to Russia," including the use of sanctions.
Putin's visits to Europe since the Ukraine crisis began in early 2014 have been few and far between. Last June he visited Austria and travelled to Italy and Serbia in October 2014. He also visited Hungary in February.
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