MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin has expressed regret that Rome joined sanctions against Moscow.

"Unfortunately, a pause has emerged lately connected with deterioration of Russia’s relations with the European Union," Naryshkin said at a meeting with Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Simone Baldelli. "We sincerely regret that Italy joined the so-called anti-Russian sanctions," he noted.

He explained that he described the sanctions as "so-called" because "these are unilateral measures not supported by UN Security Council and thus qualified as illegal."

The fact the Italy supported restrictive measures against Russia has an impact on the volume and nature of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. "The volume of trade has fallen by 36% only in the first half of this year, and imports to Italy from Russia has decreased by 40% We know that Italian companies are concerned with the situation, and entrepreneurs call for restoring cooperation at full scale," the speaker noted.