“The conflict in Ukraine, especially at its initial stage, caused a new manifestation of anti-NATO and anti-Western sentiments in our country, which, although they were in the minority, turned out to be very significant in public debate,” RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.
The head of the Italian Foreign Ministry said this, speaking at an event at the Foreign Press Association in Rome.
Earlier, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that the situation in Ukraine demonstrated the isolation of the West from the rest of the world.