MOSCOW, July 01. /ITAR-TASS/. Any tightening of Western sanctions against Russia is not in the interests of Italian business circles, but once they are imposed, Rome will have to accept the bloc’s discipline, Russian Ambassador to Italy Sergey Razov told journalists on Tuesday

“Italy has taken an ambivalent attitude,” he said. “On the one hand, it is a member of Euro-Atlantic institutions like the Group of Eight (uniting France, United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada), NATO and the European Union, and all decisions made within these institutions are binding.”

“But Italian counterparts understand probably better that anybody else that deepening and broadening sanctions will, first of all, hit their own business,” Razov said, adding that Italy was Russia's fourth largest trading partner.

“Italian business circles are certainly interested in further cooperation on the Russian market,” he said.