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Italian MP stresses Ukraine should pay for losses due to anti-Russian sanctions

An Italian lawmaker finds it right to oblige Ukraine recover damages done to Italy by the anti-Russian sanctions.

SEVASTOPOL, October 14. /TASS/. An Italian lawmaker said on Friday it would be right to oblige Ukraine recover damages done to Italy by the anti-Russian sanctions.

"I think we will soon have to demand Ukraine compensate for the losses done to us by the anti-Russian sanctions," Stefano Valdegamberi, a member of Italy’s Veneto region parliament, told journalists when asked to comment on the Ukrainian authorities’ calls to condemn the Italian delegation for its visit to Crimea without their consent.

He said that losses from the anti-Russian sanctions in Veneto alone can be assessed at one billion euro. He stressed that the sanctions have to sense and lamented that efforts towards their abandonment have been failing so far.

Tancredi Turco, a member of the Italian national parliament, added that despite the fact that a number of Italian regional legislatures have passed resolutions recognizing Crimea as part of Russia and calling to cancel the sanctions, this issue is not supported by the majority of lawmakers of the country’s national parliament. However, in his words, Russian Crimea has a lot of supporters in the Italian national legislature.

A delegation of business people and parliamentarians from five Italian regions (Veneto, Liguria, Lombardia, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna) arrived in Crimea to discuss partnership and prospects for the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions with regional authorities and business community.

The regional parliaments of these regions adopted resolutions earlier this year calling to recognize Crimea and cancel sanctions against Russia.

The Italian delegation was received by Crimea’s head Sergey Aksyonov and the speaker of the State Council (legislature) Vladimir Konstantinov. Earlier on Friday, a member of the Executive Committee of the Italian city of Padua, Marina Bufoni, and speaker of the Simferopol City Council Viktor Ageyev signed a memorandum on Simferopol and Padua becoming sister cities.

The Italian lawmakers said that their visit to Crimea is a signal to the European Union on the disagreement with the sanction policy.