Italy's culture minister joined the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday in condemning an invitation for maestro Valery Gergiev to perform near Naples, saying it risked being propaganda for Moscow.
Russian conductor Gergiev, a personal friend of President Vladimir Putin who has since December 2023 led Moscow's world famous Bolshoi Theatre, has been shunned by the West since the start of the Ukraine war for failing to denounce Russia's invasion.
