MOSCOW, Sep 22 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic sent a letter to the leadership of the National Hockey League ( NHL) a letter that warned of a possible ban on entry into the country for Russian citizens for exhibition matches, said Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Smolek, quoted by the Czech edition of Blesk. The NHL season starts with meetings as part of the Global Series in Prague on October 7 and 8 , «San Jose» and «Nashville» will play among themselves. «We can confirm that the Czech Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the leadership of the NHL, in which it warned that neither the Czech Republic, nor any other state of the Schengen zone should issue visas to Russian players. Also we pointed to ongoing negotiations to ban entry for citizens of the Russian Federation holding valid visas previously issued This approach is based both on the recommendation of the sports ministers to prevent Russian athletes from participating in sports competitions in Europe, and on the conclusions of an informal meeting of foreign ministers at the end of August,» Smolek said. Russian forwards Alexander Barabanov and Evgeny Svechnikov play in San Jose, and striker Yakov Trenin plays in Nashville.
