The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Antonio Tajani, proposed to deny visas to the persons accompanying the Russian and Belarusian athletes participating in the Paralympic Games to be held in Italy. According to La Repubblica, this issue was discussed at the meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, Tayani's proposal is to at least refrain from issuing visas to accompanying persons, even if they are persons with disabilities. According to the newspaper, the Minister of Foreign Affairs had a closed meeting with the Minister of Sports of Italy, Andrea Abodi, after which the ministers issued a joint statement opposing the International Paralympic Committee's decision to allow athletes to participate. For his part, Italian Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida emphasized that "any discrimination should be avoided".
The Paralympic Games will be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo from March 6-15. Russian athletes will compete with the flag and anthem. Earlier, the president of the Russian Paralympic Committee, Pavel Rozhkov, told TASS that six Russian athletes received bilateral invitations to participate in the Paralympic Games.
