Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Senate President, friends and colleagues. It gives me great pleasure to meet you in Moscow, Russia. Relations between our countries are developing in a very positive way. Trade is growing and so are ties at practically all levels.
This is the result of efforts at every tier of authority, beginning with the Prime Minister and ending with members of Parliament. The Italian President and the Parliament's top leadership have always paid closest attention to Russian-Italian relations.
Recently, I have had an opportunity to express my sympathies to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the tragedy that occurred in Italy. Today I want to convey my sympathies to you. I am sure that you and the Italian Prime Minister will do everything to help the victims.
We attach great importance to the development of inter-parliamentary ties. Only by drawing on the broad support of all political forces in our countries is it possible to develop relations in the positive key, as has always been the case.
Welcome to Moscow.
Renato Schifani (as translated): Mr Prime Minister, on my own behalf and on behalf of the Senate of the Republic of Italy, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to you for the reception we enjoyed today.
We are aware how tremendously busy you are. Meeting with heads of Parliament is not part of your usual practice not because you are insensitive to parliaments and these branches of authority, but because your working schedule is extremely packed.
I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for Russia's acceptance of our proposal and agreement to move the meeting of the Group of Eight from Maddalena to L'Aquila, a town that has seen great suffering. In this way, you and the entire international community have shown that you support us. We would like to thank everyone, including the Russian Federation.
I fully agree with you when you say that it is necessary to invigorate cooperation between our Senate and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. In this context I would like to stress that our Senate has concluded a series of agreements with the Russian Parliament.
Just now I had a meeting with Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov. We agreed to exchange views and information also because Italy is preparing to modify its constitutional set-up in what concerns branches of parliamentary authority. Italy's Senate will be regional in character and be more like your Federation Council. In this respect we could benefit from your experience.