World Cup improves Russia’s image, but fails to placate public
THE Fifa World Cup, which culminates in the final on Sunday, has turned into something bigger than just a sport event. It has not only become a real celebration for football fans from different countries, but it has also broken negative stereotypes about Russia persistently spread by the West and its mass media after the reintegration of Crimea four years ago.
More than 2.5 million tickets have been sold for the World Cup games. Eleven Russian cities are hosting the games, not only Moscow and St Petersburg, but also smaller ones such as Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and even the backwater town of Saransk, hardly heard of abroad.
Russia has shown itself to the world from different angles, and much of it is truly exciting. Foreign guests have flooded the cities where the games are held. They are singing, dancing and simply enjoying themselves, turning the streets into a never-ending carnival.
Latin American fans visibly outnumber their European counterparts, especially Britons, who stayed at home scared by terrible stories told by their own governments and mass media about cold Russia. As a matter of fact, in the first few days of the championship, the weather in the host cities was hot, with temperatures rising to 40°C, and cooled slightly several days later.
There have been neither clashes between fans nor terrorist attacks during the World Cup. “Journalists write a lot of false scary stories about Russia. You are very nice and polite people. We love you,” British fans told the Russian television channel REN TV.
“You have deceived us,” British fans wrote in response to their media reports. Almost everybody has agreed that the situation at the championship has been wonderful: everything is well organised, security is excellent, and Russians are actually very friendly and helpful, even though some do not speak English.
The World Cup had been a lot of joy and fun, said Bart Verhaeghe, the vice-president of the Royal Belgian Football Association. He thanked the organisers for the wonderful atmosphere and thorough preparation of the championship.
“We like it here in Russia. Everyone we have met so far has been kind and responsive. They always tried to help. There is a little problem with understanding each other as not all people speak English, but no one leaves us fans in trouble,” said Andreas of Denmark.
Leonel Puig of Uruguay said this was his fourth World Cup in a row and he thought it was the best so far. “The World Cup 2018 will leave a deep impression in the memory of all fans who have come here from all around the world to support their teams. There are a lot of stereotypes about Russia, some of which have been shattered completely by such perfect organisation and wonderful celebration the hosts have offered to the world,” said French newspaper Le Monde.
Team Russia’s performance has made a real sensation. For the first time in the Soviet and post-Soviet history of football, the national team, considered the weakest among all contenders, made it to the quarter-finals by beating Spain. It almost got through to the semifinals but lost to Croatia in a series of penalty kicks.
The German newspaper Bild described this as “a Russian fairytale” and “a sensation”. This is probably the main surprise of the championship, with the current champion, Germany, having dropped out in the group stage, said the German magazine, Stern, which had been critical of the Russian team before the championship and even apologised for that on the cover of one of its issues. In fact, Russia has risen from 70th to seventh place in the Fifa rankings.
It has become clear that Western leaders did not follow Britain’s Russophobic calls to boycott the championship. The presidents of France and Croatia, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Swedish ministers, and even a Japanese princess have visited Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron cheered France on to victory in the semi-final game against Belgium. Many others would surely have come too if their teams had performed better.
President Vladimir Putin said the World Cup 2018 would improve Russia’s international position. “The so-called people’s journalists, that is, people who work in social networks, helped break many of the stereotypes about Russia.”
Analysts believe the championship has helped Putin strengthen his geopolitical status. At a meeting in Moscow on July 4, US National Security Adviser John Bolton complimented him by asking how the Russian authorities had organise the championship so well.
Bolton’s talks, followed by a visit to Moscow of a group of Republican senators, preceded the PutinTrump meeting scheduled for July 16 in Helsinki, the next day after the end of the World Cup in Russia. Clearly, its success will not affect the outcome of the talks but will provide a positive background. In contrast, the championship has not been so favourable for the domestic situation. Apparently hoping that it would distract people from everyday problems, the government has pushed ahead with a painful, but necessary, pension reform. It will raise the retirement age gradually to 63 from 55 for women and to 65 from 60 for men, starting next year. Another unpopular decision raised the valued added tax from 18% to 20%.
Both decisions pushed the government’s rating all the way down. Two weeks after the pension reform plan was announced, public opinion polls showed that one-third of respondents were ready to take part in protests in the near future.
This is a record high number in the past eight years, exceeding even the level of protests against Duma vote rigging in 2011. The number of people wishing to vote for Putin, who received the support of 76.6% at the latest presidential election in March, has dropped below 50%. Obviously, football did not help.
Vanyna is Independent Media’s stringer in Moscow.
Russia has shown itself to the world from different angles and much of it is truly exciting