Smiling Russians? World Cup hosts defy glum, hostile image

MOSCOW (AP) — Chilly, gray, threatening. To many outsiders, that’s the image Russia conveys to the world. But that’s not the Russia World Cup fans are discovering.

A Moscow subway security guard gives a visitor a thumbs-up sign. A waitress in Saransk bubbles over in wonder at meeting her first-ever American. Buoyant Russian fans sing, party and share face paint with foreigners.

And forget about the language barrier. It seems like everyone is using translation apps to surmount it — and laughing together when it produces nonsensical results.

From the Black Sea to Baltic, from the Ural Mountains to Moscow’s Gorky Park, Russians largely see this World Cup as an opportunity. And they appear surprisingly eager to set aside political tensions, welcome visitors and share their rich culture and history.

“We thought Russians would be, well maybe not rude, but cold,” said Jose Oscar Rodriguez, who came with his father from Peru’s capital Lima to follow his national team. “But everyone is nice. The taxi drivers, the host in our building, the people in the streets . ... Everyone.”

That doesn’t come naturally.

For many Russians, the default stance toward foreigners is caution and suspicion. It’s partly left over from Sovietera worries about both Western espionage and the KGB’s watchful eye. And it’s partly a renewed wariness cultivated by President Vladimir Putin, whose rule and popularity ride on the belief, propagated in state media, that Russia is under siege from outsiders who want to undermine its political stability.

At the moment, Russia is under siege from outsiders who just want to have fun. Mexican fans wearing sombreros, Peruvians wearing headdresses, Belgians wearing French-fry hats, all happy to be part of Russia’s first-ever World Cup, all hoping for their team to win.

The 11 host cities, many still grungy not long ago, are resplendent.

Giant inflatable soccer balls and flags of the world dangle from the gleaming glass ceiling of 19th century GUM shopping mall abutting Red Square. Children kick balls on the pristine plaza beneath the Kul Sharif mosque in Kazan.