REVENUE BOOST FOR RUSSIA, COURTESY FANS

MOSCOW:MOSCOW’S beer kegs are emptying fast and demand for Vladimir Putin T-shirts is overwhelming St. Petersburg street vendors as the World Cup sends business surging across the 11 Russian cities hosting football’s biggest show.

The Russian president was counting on just such a boost after US and European sanctions and low oil prices sank the country into recession, and after Russia’s government spent 800 billion rubles ($12.7 billion) to ready for the World Cup. But experts warn the boon won’t last long without deeper change to the oil-reliant, corruption-tainted Russian economy.

Among the big winners are freelance taxi drivers, dating apps and bars where fans gather to watch matches or celebrate their teams’ victories.

“We are so far off the chart on this, we order as much beer in one night as we would order in a month,” said Doug Steele, owner of Papa’s Bar & Grill on Nikolskaya Street just off Red Square.

Sales of Kazan’s chak-chak dessert , Rostov’s local cakes and Russian pelmeni dumplings everywhere have soared.

So have visits to lesser-known monuments and cultural sites — a World War II museum in Volgograd, a Cossack village in Rostov, a museum dedicated to the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.

While it’s too early to estimate the economic gains, the government should at least break even, predicts Vladimir Ageyev, Moscow State University sports management expert.

Moody’s warned just before the tournament that despite the boost in tourism industry revenues, the World Cup would only make a “short-lived” contribution to the economy.