Italy's Lega To Convince Europe Of Futility Of Isolating Russia - Agriculture Minister

Italy's Lega party will try to persuade Europe that isolating Russia is futile, Italian Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and Lega's member Gian Marco Centinaio told Sputnik on Saturday

MILAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th May, 2019) Italy's Lega party will try to persuade Europe that isolating Russia is futile, Italian Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and Lega's member Gian Marco Centinaio told Sputnik on Saturday.

"I think now we need to think about the fact that Russia is an important partner and should not be isolated ... We will try to convince the rest, so that everyone will agree with us in the end," Centinaio said during a major demonstration organized by the Lega's leader and Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini in Milan.

Salvini has built a pan-European bloc of right-wing parties ahead of the elections to the European Parliament, in which his party is projected to make some of the most striking gains. The ongoing demonstration is joined by 11 right-wing European parties' representatives, including French National Rally party's leader Marine Le Pen, Alternative for Germany's (AfD) co-leader Jorg Meuthen and the Dutch Party's for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders.

Relations between Russia and the West deteriorated in 2014 over the Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict and Crimea's reunification with Russia following a referendum.

The United States and the European Union have since imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia's energy, banking, defense and other sectors, as well as on a number of Russian officials. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations and reacted with countermeasures, such as an embargo on food products, against the Western nations that targeted it with sanctions.

According to UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures Idriss Jazairy, the European Union has lost more in terms of income than Russia that has managed to mitigate losses from the EU sanctions by boosting domestic production. In March, Jazairy told Sputnik that applying sanctions that were costing more for the Europeans that for the Russians was "crazy" and called upon the sides to find other ways to overcome contradictions.