Italy urges dialogue with Russia

Rome   :  There should be dialogue with Moscow including over war-torn Syria, Italy's Premier Paolo Gentiloni said on Tuesday, calling Russia "a great neighbour of Europe".

"Italy has been accused of being too soft on Russia, but I don't accept a world view that harks back to the cliches of the Cold War or the beginning of World War II," Gentiloni told lawmakers.

"Today firmness needs to be accompanied by openness and dialogue with a great neighbour of Europe like Russia."

Russia's relations with Western nations have deteriorated over its support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's bloody civil war, its alleged intervention in 2016 in the US presidential election and Brexit, purported cyberattacks against Western facilities and the alleged poisoning in the UK of a former Russian spy and his daughter in March with a deadly nerve agent.