Swedish politicians will attend their national team’s match against Switzerland on Tuesday in St. Petersburg, despite an earlier boycott of the World Cup over political tensions.
Stockholm previously said that officials would not visit the tournament in solidarity with London, which blamed Moscow for poisoning a Russian ex-spy in the United Kingdom earlier this year.
“We were consistent when we said that we would boycott the opening [games] in solidarity with Britain,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister, Margot Wallstrom, was cited as saying by the Aftonbladet newspaper.
“But in this situation, we consider it important to support our team and we’ve taken the decision [to end the boycott] after consultations with such countries as Denmark and the United Kingdom,” she added.
Sweden qualified for the knockout rounds of the tournament after topping a group with Germany, Mexico and South Korea.
In a related development, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told Sputnik on Monday that he would support Russia in their quarterfinal game against Croatia at the World Cup.
Russia and Croatia defeated their respective opponents, Spain and Denmark, on penalties on Sunday and will play each other in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Saturday.
“I think that Croatia are one of the best teams at the World Cup, but of course I will be supporting Russia,” Vucic said.
Serbia were eliminated from the tournament after the group stage.