OREANDA-NEWS  Flags of Russia and Belarus will be banned at the 2023 World Cup, which will be held in Latvia and Finland.

This was reported to the publication by the head of the Latvian organizing committee of the tournament Edgars Buntsis.

Flags will be prohibited from being carried to matches and hung out at the venues of the World Cup.

At the same time, the organizers allowed the flags of Ukraine to be brought to the tournament, which will be equated in status to the flags of Latvia.

In May 2022, it became known that the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) suspended the national teams of Russia and Belarus from participating in the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship in Finland and Latvia.

In January, the organizers of the Australian Open Tennis Championship (Australian Open) banned the flags of Russia and Belarus in the stands due to complaints from Ukrainian spectators.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Miroshnichenko earlier expressed outrage that during the first round match of the Australian Open between Ukrainian Katerina Bindl and Russian Kamilla Rakhimova, there was a fan with the flag of Russia on the spectator stand.

Earlier, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, three-time Olympic figure skating champion Irina Rodnina agreed with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, who called humiliating the criteria of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the admission of Russian athletes to international competitions.