Putin Accepts Invited to Visit Italy

Prime Minister Giuseppe Cton visited Moscow last month and invited Putin to Rome as soon as possible. And the Kremlin announced Thursday that diplomats are drafting a plan for the visit.

Russia is willing to develop ties with Italy in hopes of ending EU sanctions imposed on Moscow during the 2014 annexation of the Crime Crime region in Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Cote told Putin last month that he thought sanctions “should be lifted as soon as possible” and that Rome wanted to convince other EU countries to abandon them.

Italian firms, of which about 500 in Russia, have long complained that sanctions are damaging their business and have lobbied in Rome to remove them.

The latest round of the EU to do business with the Russian, financial and energy banking sector was renewed in June but expires in late January and will be discussed in Brussels.