MOSCOW — God has blessed Vladimir Putin with perfect judgment.

That's at least what he told an Italian newspaper in advance of his meeting with the Pope.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the Russian president was asked whether he had any regrets about decisions he's made in his life.

"I can't remember anything at this moment," Putin answered. "Clearly God has built my life in a way that I won't have anything to regret."

The interview came as Putin traveled to Rome on Wednesday in search of an ally. He hopes to find one in Pope Francis, who is set to host him at the Vatican at a time when tensions between Russia and the West are at their worst since the Cold War.

President Barack Obama and European leaders this week blasted the Russian head of state over his country's military actions in eastern Ukraine.

"He's got to make a decision: Does he continue to wreck his country's economy...in pursuit of a wrong-headed desire to recreate the glories of the Soviet empire?" Obama said.

The Kremlin continues to deny involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

Visitors hold a banner reading "Putin save the world!" and a Russian flag as Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for a visit at the Russian pavilion at the 2015 Expo in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Wednesday, June 10, 2015.

When asked by the Italian interviewer whether "Russia feels betrayed, abandoned by Europe like a lover abandoned by his mistress," Putin said: "We have never viewed Europe as a mistress. I am quite serious now. We have always proposed a serious relationship. But now I have the impression that Europe has actually been trying to establish material based relations with us, and solely for its own gain."

The U.S. hopes the Vatican will use the meeting with Putin to do a bit of diplomatic arm-twisting when it comes to Ukraine.

"Maybe this is an opportunity where the Holy Father can privately raise concerns," Ken Hackett, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, reportedly said.

The Russian president's first stop in Italy on Wednesday morning was Milan where he met Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and received a warm reception from a crowd of screaming fans. "Putin! Putin!" and "Russia! Russia!" they chanted while waving the Russian tricolor.

Вот так поддерживают Путина в Милане pic.twitter.com/xA7zku9awP — Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) June 10, 2015

Putin's meeting with Pope Francis will be the second time the two men meet. Their first meeting took place in November 2013, a month before the revolution began in Kiev, setting in motion Russia's annexation of Crimea five months later, and the war in eastern Ukraine a month after that.

The Vatican and Moscow have been trying to build stronger diplomatic relations. Many consider a second meeting between Pope Francis and Putin an achievement in and of itself, considering that the Soviet Union was officially an atheist state for half a century.

No pope has ever visited Russia and Putin has yet to extend an invitation for Pope Francis to do so.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, flanked on his right by Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, waves as he leaves after visiting the Russian pavilion at the 2015 Expo in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Wednesday, June 10, 2015.

In Moscow, Russians were mostly apathetic about the Putin-Pope meeting. One elderly couple on a bench in Pushkin Square said they were unaware the two men were meeting.

Anastasia Kunina, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mother of two, said talks about peace was a good thing. But she didn't think Putin should invite the Pope to come visit. "We are an Orthodox country," she said. "Russia must stay that way."