MOSCOW, October 4./TASS/. A delegation of Italian parliamentarians will visit Crimea in mid-October, a senior Russian parliamentarian from the Federation Council upper house of parliament wrote in Twitter on Tuesday.

"’A delegation of deputies from four regional parliaments of Italy will arrive in Crimea next week," Alexey Pushkov said. "Rebellion against sanctions in some Italian regions continues," he added.

Four Italian regions (Veneto, Lombardy, Liguria and Tuscany) have already voted for the resolution calling for lifting the sanctions and restoring full-fledged relations with Russia.

The EU introduced sanctions against Russia in 2014 in the wake of events in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia. It has enlarged and prolonged them on a number of occasions since then.

As part of the sanction drive, it suspended talks with Russia on visa-free traveling and on a new basic agreement on cooperation.

On July 1, the EU Council officially extended its economic sectoral sanctions against Russia for another six months until January 31, 2017.

Russia retaliated with sanctions of its own on August 7, 2014. Apart from the EU and the US, these sanctions also hit Australia, Canada, and Norway.

The countersanctions imposed a ban on imports of fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products and fish from these countries.

On June 29, Russia extended its counter-sanctions imposed two years ago. The relevant decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia’s counter-sanctions have been extended from August 6, 2016 to December 31, 2017. If necessary, the Russian government may introduce proposals on changing the term of the country’s counter-sanctions.