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Russian national flag hoisted in Venezuela at welcoming ceremony of 2023 ALBA Games

The ALBA Games will consist of 35 events hosted by Venezuela between April 21 and 29

Caracas, Venezuela Valery Sharifulin/TASS

Caracas, Venezuela

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

CARACAS, April 20. /TASS/. The national flag of Russia was raised and the country’s anthem was played during the official welcoming ceremony for athletes competing in the 2023 ALBA Games in Venezuela.

The welcoming ceremony of the 2023 ALBA Games, which are held under the auspices of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), took place at Venezuela’s National Sports Institute in Caracas.

"It is a great honor for us to hoist the Russian flag at the ALBA Games," Ninoska Closier, the chairwoman of Venezuela’s National Sports Institute, said.

Russian Ambassador to Venezuela Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov and Deputy Sports Minister Alexey Morozov, who heads the Russian sports delegation at the upcoming tournament, were guests of honor at the ceremony.

"Russia has been invited to the [2023] ALBA Games in the status of a special guest," Melik-Bagdasarov said. "By the end of April, our athletes will have competed in table tennis, boxing, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, weightlifting, and beach volleyball events."

The ambassador stressed that in Venezuela the Russian athletes would be competing under their national flag "for the first time since the beginning of the aggressive Western campaign to 'cancel’ Russian sports."

The roster of the Russian national squad at the 2023 ALBA Games is made up of 48 athletes who will compete for medals in a variety of events, including boxing, beach volleyball, karate, table tennis, trampoline, weightlifting and rhythmic gymnastics.

In late February, Venezuela’s Minister of Popular Power for Youth and Sports, Mervin Maldonado, invited Russian athletes to participate in the 2023 ALBA Games. The invitation was extended personally by Maldonado to Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin during their bilateral meeting on February 22.

The ALBA Games will consist of 35 events hosted by Venezuela between April 21 and 29. As many as 3,500 athletes representing 11 countries are expected to take part in the upcoming competition. Venezuela last hosted the ALBA Games in 2011.

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) was established on December 14, 2004 at the initiative of then-President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro. ALBA’s 10 member states are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.

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