Russia and Italy continue to develop their relations despite the difficult external conditions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

"There have been very constructive, and also benevolent, relations between Russia and your country during the recent years and decades, which are supported by almost all political forces both in Italy and in the Russian Federation," Putin said at the beginning of the meeting. "Despite the hard times today, we’ve never lost the high level of political contacts," the Russian president added.

The president also expressed regret that "Italy lost its positions on the Russian market as an economic partner to a certain extent," but stressed that the volume of the trade-economic ties of the two countries remains high. Italy is ranked sixth in the Russian foreign trade turnover, "and we have seen a stable growth of the trade turnover in the last two years," Putin said.

"We are very happy to see you, talk about the state of our relations and lay out the prospects of the development of the Italian-Russian ties in the near future and in the long run," Putin stressed.