Italy’s Ministry of Culture said the foundation “decided entirely independently on the Russian Federation’s participation in the 61st International Art Exhibition in Venice, despite the Italian government’s opposition.”

Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco defended the decision, telling Italian media that the exhibition is “a space of truce” where art prevails over geopolitics. He confirmed that Russia, Iran, Israel, Ukraine and Belarus will all be present.

Mikhail Shvydkoy, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for international cultural cooperation, told media that Russia’s participation was “further proof that Russian culture is not isolated, and that attempts to ‘cancel’ it — undertaken for the past four years by Western political elites — have not succeeded.”

Ksenia Malykh, co-curator of the Ukrainian pavilion at the Biennale, told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne that Russia’s return to major international art events did not come as a surprise to Ukraine’s cultural community.

“Everyone who has been involved in international cultural projects over the past four years is not very surprised, unfortunately, because Russia has been finding ways to get into important venues in one form or another all this time,” she said.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys wrote on X that “there can be no return to business as usual with a murderer and a terrorist. Russia continues its large-scale war against Ukraine … The decision to roll out the red carpet to Russia’s dark cultural diplomacy is abhorrent.”