Valery Gergiev, an ally of Russian leader, is due to perform in Europe for first time since full-scale invasion of Ukraine

The widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is leading calls for Italy to scrap the performance of a Russian orchestra conductor with close ties to Vladimir Putin at a music festival in southern Italy.

Valery Gergiev, who has been a close ally of Putin since the early 1990s, will perform in Europe for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine after being invited to the Un’Estate da Re festival in La Reggia di Caserta, a former Bourbon palace and Unesco world heritage site, in Campania on 27 July.