A cautious welcome in former Stalingrad

RUSSIA’S most patriotic city, Volgograd, has extended a cautious welcome to British fans ahead of the England match tomorrow, despite the ongoing political standoff between the two nations.

While the Euro 2016 clashes with Russian hooligans have put off many Three Lions supporters – only 2,000 are expected at the match with Tunisia – some locals said they were equally nervous about England fans’ notorious rowdiness.

Once called Stalingrad, Volgograd is known for repulsing Nazi forces in the bloodiest siege in history.

At an event dedicated to Coventry’s 1944 twinning with Stalingrad yesterday, Andrei Kosolapov, the Volgograd mayor, said residents “should form their own opinion” independent of high-level geopolitical tensions. He assured The Sunday Telegraph that most fans would “come to watch the match, not have it out with each other”.

Yesterday the Russian embassy in the UK said London was “harming law enforce- ment activities to establish the truth” after it did not include Moscow in the investigation of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury with a Russian military-grade nerve agent.

British ministers and the Royal family are boycotting the World Cup over the poisoning. But several Volgograd residents said there would not be any strife as long as British fans behaved respectfully.

Asked about the UK police warning fans not to sing songs or hang flags near “sensitive sites” in Volgograd, Mr Kosolapov said England flags would be welcome everywhere except war monuments or holy sites.

“People are a bit afraid that there will be some mayhem, but it’s sport, it depends on how the players play,” said Olga Sizova at the Mamayev Kurgan war monument. “Politics doesn’t play a role.”

Her friend Yekaterina Balabanova said her impression of British fans from when she travelled to see Spartak Moscow play Chelsea in 2010 was that they cannot “hold their liquor”.