VENICE, May 7 (Reuters) - Dozens of activists from the anti-Kremlin art collective Pussy Riot held a demonstration in Venice on Thursday, waving Ukrainian flags and chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin to oppose Moscow’s presence at the Venice Biennale.

“No Putin in Venice,” chanted the demonstrators, most of them wearing pink balaclavas.

Ansa news agency reported they were stopped by police near St Mark’s Square and redirected to the Biennale foundation’s headquarters, where flares in the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag were lit.

The protest followed a similar demonstration on Wednesday, when members of the feminist collective reached the Russian pavilion at the Biennale Gardens, the exhibition’s main venue.

Last year, a Moscow court designated Pussy Riot an extremist organisation, banning its activities inside Russia as part of a wider crackdown on dissent.

Although Putin himself has not attended the Biennale, the event has drawn criticism from the Italian government and the European Union after it became public in early March that Russia would be represented at the exhibition for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Biennale Chairman Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has defended the decision, saying art should remain a neutral space for dialogue without censorship.

The exhibition is set to open on Saturday and run until November. Russia’s pavilion, however, will only be open until May 8 for four days of press previews.

(Writing by Angelo Amante; editing by Barbara Lewis)