The Council of Europe (CoE)

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers had resolved to expel Russia from the organization.

Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that the committee has begun the process to prevent Russia from joining the Council of Europe.

Di Maio told the ANSA News that "the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, chaired by Italy, decided to exclude Russia from its ranks, guided by Article 8 of the statute. Italy believes that this is a necessary measure in light of Russia's unacceptable military aggression against Ukraine, which constitutes a serious violation of international law."

On his account, Russian Ambassador in Rome Sergey Razov said, on Friday, that the Italian side has announced the impossibility of a trip to Russia by Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

Last week, Giorgio Starace, the Italian ambassador to Moscow, told Sputnik that Rome and Moscow are working on the details of Draghi's visit to Russia, which might happen before the end of February.

"After we made a decision to recognize the DPR and LPR, the Italian colleagues considered that the visit was not possible. I emphasize that all this happened before the start of a special military operation," Razov added.

Fears of a potential energy crisis

Furthermore, Draghi stated that the Italian government plans to increase gas deliveries from other countries amid sanctions against Russia over the developments in Ukraine.

The administration, he claims, is developing steps to deal with a potential energy catastrophe.

"Emergency measures include greater flexibility in gas consumption, suspensions in industry, and rules for gas consumption in the thermal power sector, where measures are in place to reduce the load. The government is also working to increase alternative supplies. We intend to increase imports of liquefied natural gas via other routes, for example, from the United States," Draghi stressed.

Italy may potentially fight an expected energy crisis by reopening coal-fired power facilities, which it previously refused to do, in order to avoid a possible short-term deficit, according to the prime minister.