"In the first year of [anti-Russia] sanctions, Italy's losses stood at some 300 million euro. Now, if [the food] embargo [imposed by Russia as a response to Western sanctions] continues, we expect losses from the [inability to] export in 2015 to stand at 3 billion euro," Lisa Ferrarini, vice president for Europe at Confindustria, said.
According to Ferrarini, many of Italy's long-term investments to ensure its presence in the Russian market have now been rendered futile by the sanctions imposed in 2014, and it will take years for the country to find markets to replace Russia.
Ferrarini expressed concern over the impact of the sanctions on the entire EU economic system, and said Europe would be unable to take action to stabilize the situation without US approval.
Since 2014, the United States, the European Union and some other countries have imposed several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions over Moscow’s alleged involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and its "annexation" of Crimea. Kremlin has repeatedly denied the accusations.
As a retaliatory measure, in August 2014, the Russian government imposed a one-year ban on the import of certain food products from the countries that had introduced sanctions against Moscow. The food ban was later extended for another year.
