Fans at Russia 2018 will be allowed to fly rainbow flags to highlight the rights of LGBT supporters but must not promote same-sex relationships to minors, according to the former Chelsea player Alexei Smertin.

Smertin, now a Russian Football Union official and World Cup ambassador, said rainbow paraphernalia will be tolerated. Being gay is not illegal in Russia but the country has a law banning teaching about homosexuality in schools.

“There will definitely be no ban on wearing rainbow symbols in Russia,” he said. “It’s clear you can come here and not be fined for expressing feelings. The law is about propaganda to minors. I can’t imagine that anyone is going to go into a school and propagate that way to children.”

Activists held a forum in the basement of a hotel two kilometres further down the Moskva river from the Kremlin on Thursday, away from the main tourist attractions. They discussed the country’s equality and human rights concerns and discrimination issues in football.

Smertin’s remarks were welcomed by the Fare network, which advises Fifa on discrimination issues. “He’s giving some reassurances and that’s all that people want,” the Fare executive director, Piara Powar, said. “People want to know that they can come here safely, that they will be protected, that they are wanted.”

Homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia in 1993, but homophobic sentiment remains strong. Russia passed a federal law banning so-called propaganda of homosexuality to minors in 2013, which has been widely criticised for leading to the banning of gay pride events or discussions of gay rights in public spaces where children could be present.

In the lead-up to Russia’s hosting of the Winter Olympics in 2014, President Vladimir Putin said gay people would be welcome in Sochi but must “leave the children in peace”.