This opinion was expressed by the President of the Italian-Russian chamber of Commerce Rosario Alessandrello. "The Russian embargo does not harm European companies, especially German. First of all, it is damaging to Italy", — he said.

According to him, the Italian business consists of small and medium-sized companies that are poorly represented on the Russian market: about 70 companies producing goods in Russia. "Two years ago they began to invest in localization to keep the market not only through imports but also by complete or partial production in Russia", — said the Italian.

Weak presence of Italian companies on the Russian market have made the country more vulnerable to Russian action in comparison with Germany, whose companies in Russia much more, he added.

"For example, the most affected agro-food sector, Italy today due to Russia's kontramarka lost 11-12 billion euros of exports to Russia and 200 thousand jobs. This is impossible to adapt, because Italy needs new markets. Of them Russian is the closest and most appropriate for the Italians" — said the head of the chamber of Commerce.

We will remind, the ban on import of foreign products in the Russian Federation is valid until the end of 2018.

Photo: 24tv.ua