MOSCOW (AP) – FIFA president Gianni Infantino defended Russia’s human rights record on Tuesday in his first visit to the 2018 World Cup host nation since taking charge of soccer’s governing body, saying the country was “open and welcoming.”
The visit came a week after a human rights report by Harvard professor John Ruggie, commissioned by FIFA, raised concerns about Russia’s law prohibiting gay “propaganda” and the treatment of migrant workers.
“FIFA is not the world welfare agency but we have to be responsible about these things, we have to be responsible about the position we take about human rights,” Infantino said when asked about Ruggie’s concerns.
“We have to address all the issues and I think that these events give the opportunity to speak about topics which maybe are not pleasant, which maybe sometimes are not directly linked.”
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, who was sitting beside Infantino, defended the gay propaganda law, saying that “no one has been persecuted, no one is persecuted.”