ROME, July 3./TASS/. Italy believes that unilateral decisions in the issue of anti-Russian sanctions are counter-productive and works on a comprehensive constructive dialogue to overcome the ongoing sanction hurdles, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman ahead of an official visit to Italy by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Unilateral actions [from Italy] within the framework of the current European mechanism would not produce any result even for Russia, that is why we are working to involve all parties in a constructive dialogue," Conte said.

"I have always been saying and I repeat that sanctions are not a goal in itself, they are applied to achieve certain aims, and in this case the aim is the implementation of the Minsk agreements. Italy is trying to work on overcoming sanctions, but for this certain moves are needed both from Ukraine and from Russia," he specified.

According to him, at the current stage nobody can solve the problem unilaterally. "Italy is not part of the Normandy Format, but it is ready to make its contribution to give a new impetus to this negotiating process and achieve concrete results," the prime minister stressed.

Conte’s coalition government comes out against anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the European Union, and the government program has a paragraph about their lifting. However, Rome has already three times voted in Brussels for extending sanctions for another half-a-year.

The full text of the interview will be released on the website www.tass.ru and in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily. It will be also broadcast on Rossiya-24 television.