<span style="color: #222222;">Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for help in improving relations between the European Union and Russia and stop sanctions on Moscow.<br />'' <br />'' After meeting with Mr Conte as part of a one-day visit to Rome, the Russian President yesterday said, he hopes Italy will explain to the EU the damage that has been caused by economic sanctions imposed by the bloc and the US after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014. <br />'' <br />'' Mr Putin acknowledged that sanctions have cost Russia an estimated 50 billion US dollars since then. He also contended that EU nations have suffered even greater damage.<br />'' <br />'' Mr Conte said that Italy would act as far as possible to help restore a full relationship between Russia and the EU. <br />'' <br />'' In his first visit to Rome in four years, Mr Putin also met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The meeting came a day before Catholic leaders from Ukraine gather at the Holy See to discuss the continuing conflict in their country and the fallout from the schism between the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches. <br />'' <br />''<br />''Last year, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine formally split from the Russian Orthodox Church in a schism recognized by the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.</span><br />