MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has denounced a decision of the Latvian Foreign Ministry and municipal authorities of Riga to remove the national flag of Belarus at the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championship, according to a statement from the IIHF press office on Tuesday.

The state flag of Belarus, raised near the Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija in downtown Riga, accommodating the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship national teams, was replaced on May 24 by the white, red and white flag, which symbolizes the political opposition in Belarus. According to earlier local media reports, the flag was replaced personally by Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics and Riga Mayor Martins Stakis.

After the flag was replaced, Mayor of Riga Stakis announced on his Twitter account: "We raise the flag of the free Belarus, entrusted to me by Belarusian political refugees, among the Hockey World Cup flags. There must be no flags in Riga that symbolize a regime that engages in state terrorism, so we took it off."

The world’s governing body of ice hockey stated on Tuesday in response to the flag-swap that "The IIHF does not agree with the actions taken yesterday by the Mayor of Riga and the Latvian Foreign Minister to use the flag of a participating country in the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship for a political message."

"The actions of the Belarus government are separate from the players who are competing under the Belarus flag at this tournament," the statement from the IIHF continued. "The players have been welcomed to Latvia as guests and should not have to see their flag removed without their consent from the public display of the 16 participating countries."

According to the IIHF, "This is in direct contradiction to the host country slogan ‘Passion. No Borders’."

The Belarusian national flag’s removal in Riga followed the incident of the emergency landing of the Ryanair civil aircraft over the past weekend. The plane was en route from Athens to Vilnius on May 23, but had to reroute to Minsk after a reported bomb threat.

The threat has not been confirmed. Later, Minsk disclosed that the aircraft was carrying Roman Protasevich, a co-founder of the Nexta Telegram Channel and who is deemed extremist in Belarus. He was apprehended by Belarusian law enforcement officers. The plane took off the same evening and landed in Vilnius soon after.

The statement from the IIHF continued saying: "Therefore, the IIHF has asked the Mayor of Riga to urgently take down the IIHF flag from the same area, as well as the World Championship flag which bears the IIHF name."

"In accordance with the IIHF Statutes, we are an apolitical sports organization, and are demanding that the IIHF is removed from any association with the political statements the Mayor and Foreign Minister have made by changing the flag of our Member."

"The IIHF will retain the Belarus flag in all World Championship venues for the duration of the tournament, and hopes that the mayor’s office of Riga will reconsider its decision to remove the Belarus flag from the group of participating nations being displayed in Riga," the IIHF added in its statement.

The 2021 Ice Hockey Championship is hosted by the Latvian capital of Riga between May 21 and June 6. The championship’s matches are played at two venues in Riga.

The main venue is the Arena Riga and it hosts Group B matches, two quarter-final games, the semi-final round and the medal round. The second venue is the Olympic Sports Centre, which has been converted into a 6,000-capacity ice rink and hosts Group A matches and two quarter-final games. All 16 participating teams are housed in one hotel and the tournament is organized in the so-called bubble mode.

The Russian national team has been placed in Group A alongside the national teams from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus and Great Britain. Group B lists the teams from Canada, Finland, the United States, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Italy and Kazakhstan.