KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Afghan President Hamid Karzai is travelling to Russia to attend Friday's opening ceremony of the Winter Games in Sochi.
The Afghan presidential palace said in a statement Friday that Karzai and his high-level delegation were invited by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It added that Karzai will meet with Putin, China's president and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon while he is in Russia.
Karzai's trip is expected to last one day.
Some prominent leaders - including U.S. President Barack Obama - are staying away from Sochi, upset at a law that Putin championed barring homosexual ''propaganda'' aimed at minors that has been used to more widely discriminate against gays.
But organizers say some 66 leaders - including heads of state and international organizations - are joining the games.
