The president of Italy's northern Veneto region said that sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU are harmful and show the bloc's exasperation toward Moscow.
"Such measures are taken nowadays if we can say 'as necessary.' I often ask myself a question: has the international community always introduced sanctions against the ones, who deserved it? No. Here we can talk about an obvious exasperation in regards to Russia. A large number of people are tied to your country by different exchanges and relations and not only of economic nature," Zaia said.
The Italian official added that the reason behind the sanctions was so that the the West could show they "have muscles."
According to the official, the restrictions against Moscow resulted in losses worth about 1 billion euros ($1.18 billion) for Veneto.
"The sanctions should be lifted. We should resume to a dialogue, diplomacy and finally to end this story with the sanctions that are useless and destructive," Zaia added.
Veneto, as well as several other Italian regions, such as Lombardy, has repeatedly criticized the anti-Russia restrictions and called for their end.
Following the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, the European Union along with the United States imposed sanctions against Russian individuals and Russian defense, energy and banking sectors in late July 2014. Moscow responded by introducing a year-long food embargo on several imports from the countries that have targeted Russia with the restrictions, extending the current embargo several times.
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