Toast to worthy host of the biggest sports show

St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. PHOTO | JAMES MWAMBA

What you need to know:

  • English-speaking volunteers — mostly local university students — are stationed outside and inside metro stations, bus stops, train stations, stadium entrances and in the stands since the tournament started, ensuring a smooth tournament.
  • The World Cup provided fans a chance to visit historical sites in Moscow and sample the country’s food and hospitality.
  • There are not many Kenyans living in Russia but a person with his ears to the ground will always find Kenyan students at People’s Friendship University of Russia.

MOSCOW

When the US announced additional economic sanctions on Russia in March because of “malign Russian cyber activity, including an attempted interference in the US elections” and an attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia near London, it added a sullied new chapter to Moscow’s already battered image.

The strained relationship with the West that had been going on for years, with echoes of the Cold War, intensified at a time President Vladimir Putin’s government was putting final touches in their positioning of Russia as worthy hosts of the biggest sports extravaganza: the football World Cup.

With the tournament just months away, Russia could ill-afford a poor international image. The mysterious poisoning of the two Russians in Salisbury using Novichok, a nerve agent, had British Prime Minister Theresa May pointing fingers at Moscow, despite Russia strenuously denying any involvement.

In solidarity with Britain, more than 20 countries, among them USA, expelled at least 100 Russian diplomats. Retaliatory expulsions only made a bad situation worse.

Then there were the trade sanctions by the European Union and America following Russia’s involvement in Ukraine’s civil war since 2014 and the subsequent annexation of the Crimea region. The country’s role in the long-running Syria war has also always divided opinion.

Russia, the world’s biggest country by size with a population of 146 million people, had already been struggling to keep world politics and the country’s poor human rights record from interfering with its preparations for the Fifa World Cup since December 2, 2010 when it won the right to host the 64 matches across 12 stadiums in 11 cities.

But this was no easy task, especially in sports where it had a reputational problem.

COUNTRY'S IMAGE

In 2014, German journalist Hajo Seppelt exposed state-sponsored doping in Russia just months after the country had hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Confessions by Russian athlete Yuliya Stepanova and her husband Vitaliy Stepanov in a documentary broadcast by German television station ARD culminated in the International Olympics Committee banning Russians from representing their country at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

If the world had feared about Russia’s poor human rights record, the arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny on May 4 during nationwide demonstrations against the swearing in of President Putin for a fourth term in office increased those fears.

And in 2015, Putin’s most vocal critic Boris Nemtsov was gunned down outside the Kremlin in the heart of Moscow. He died just hours after appealing to the public to support a march against Russia.

In hosting the world’s greatest sporting event, the Fifa World Cup, a country gets a chance to showcase its ability to host thousands of visitors from all corners of the globe and to market itself to the outside world. In Russia’s case, the 2018 Fifa World Cup, which ends today, has given President Putin an opportunity to clean up Russia’s image globally and to prove critics, particularly in Europe and the US, wrong.

According to Fifa.com, the total prize money for the 2018 tournament is Sh79.1 billion ($791 million), of which $400 million will be distributed to the 32 competing teams depending on performance. The champions will take home an eye-watering Sh3.8 billion ($38 million), while runners-up will receive $29 million and third-placed team $24 million.

In his report at the conclusion of 48 group stage matches in Moscow on June 26, Allexey Sorokin, the chief executive officer of 2018 Fifa World Cup Local Organising Committee, was pleasantly surprised at how things had turned.

“We have never had so many visitors in our country. This is a first for us, but we are doing our best. The Local Organising Committee is happy with the way things have gone so far. A total of 2.6 million tickets have been issued so far, with 2.4 million being used, representing 98 per cent uptake. There are 17,040 volunteers working in stadiums, cities and trains across Russia,” the 46-year-old graduate of Moscow State Linguistic University and State Diplomacy who speaks fluent Russian, English and French told journalists at Luzhniki Stadium.

The entrance of Red Square in Moscow. PHOTO | JAMES MWAMBA

HELPFUL VOLUNTEERS

If President Putin wanted to use the Fifa World Cup to show the other side of Russia, he has succeeded in a big way.

An important cog in the wheel have been English-speaking volunteers — mostly local university students — who have been stationed outside and inside metro stations, bus stops, train stations, stadium entrances and in the stands since the tournament started, ensuring a smooth tournament.

Selected on the basis of analytical skills, personal qualities, and command of English, volunteers have been working as ushers, stadium stewards, and have been manning information desks at media centres inside 12 stadiums hosting the tournament. They have been happy to help with practically anything, and are also eager to find out the view of visitors towards Russia.

While young Russians are eager to learn and speak English, the older generation does not, because they see no need for it, Stepanov Epanov, a 21-year-old university student working as a volunteer at the media centre at Spartak Stadium in Moscow, told me.

“I have been learning English since I was six, so the work is easier for me. In Russia, the school one attends determines whether they learn English or not. However, the old people see no use of learning English because it will not help them in life,” he said.

Eleven fan zones spread out in 11 host cities have offered fans without tickets a chance to watch matches screened live on giant screens, and Russian fans have made the most of the opportunity to rally behind the home team which reached the quarterfinals and lost to Croatia.

If Russians needed a figure to inspire their team in major tournaments, they have got two from the tournament in goalkeeping hero Igor Akinfeev who single-handedly put the team in the quarter-finals with his cat-like reflexes against Spain in their round of 16 match. The national team also performed beyond expectation, adding a sense of pride and focusing attention on the hosts.

The World Cup provided fans a chance to visit historical sites in Moscow and sample the country’s food and hospitality. For Sh1,700, one can purchase a ticket to sail up River Moscow whose history is intertwined with that of the Russian capital. Ferries and boats depart every 30 minutes from piers located at Bolshoy Ustyinsk and Gorky Park for the river cruise lasting one hour and 20 minutes.

I had a time to remember aboard a boat christened ‘Aurora’ with lively Mexican and Colombian fans wearing wide-brimmed hats called sombreros. Once inside, those who want to enjoy a quiet journey stay on the lower deck, while those who enjoy music climb the stairs to the upper deck where the bar is located.

Sombrero-wearing Mexican fans and lively supporters of Colombia created a carnival mood on the upper deck, dancing away to sensual salsa music. Russian cuisine is served while fans gulp down mouthfuls of beer and wine punctuated with beats from Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi and Demi Lovato’s numbers "Echame La Culpa" and "Despacito".

Up the river, we saw some of Moscow’s most magnificent attractions like Zaryadye Park, the Kremlin, Saint Basil's Cathedral, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and Peter the Great Statue.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

Other than the river cruise, one can take a two-day open-top bus tour of Moscow for Sh3,200, visit Lenin’s Mausoleum where the body of the Soviet leader who died in 1924 is preserved and is open for viewing; the Space Museum in Moscow where the story of the first man to journey into space, Yuri Gagarin, is told and the history of Russia’s journey into space is preserved; visit the Bolshoi Theatre or visit St Basil’s Cathedral which was built from 1555 to 1561.

One can also visit the Moscow Kremlin or the Red Square. Moscow City organised night-long carnivals for football fans at Red Square, which separates Moscow Kremlin from the nearby historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod. There, football artefacts and memorabilia are sold, and for Sh2,500, one can sample authentic Russian cuisine. The Red Square itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

There are not many Kenyans living in Russia but a person with his ears to the ground will always find Kenyan students at People’s Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) which has a total of 21,000 foreign students.

Mr Peter Kirui arrived at People’s Friendship University of Russia in September and has been taking mandatory preparatory Russian language classes. Language barrier is the biggest problem Kenyan students encounter in Russia, and Mr Kirui, who intends to pursue a masters degree course in Engineering, must learn Russian, particularly words that he will encounter in engineering. Lack of support from the Kenyan government is the other problem.

“The Russian government pays our tuition fee but we have to pay for upkeep. With the exception of Kenyan students, all foreign students from other countries at the university get a stipend for upkeep from their countries. We don’t, which makes us struggle. The government used to give Kenyan students here a stipend but it stopped. It is illegal for students to work in Russia, and that has left us suffering,” Kirui, one of 19 Kenyan students at the university, says.

The Soviet Union established the university in 1960 at the height of the Cold War to train specialists for developing nations. It was named Patrice Lumumba University in 1961 after the Congolese independence leader, Lumumba, who had been killed in a coup that January.

Foreigners who want to settle down and work in Russia must meet stringent conditions, including giving proof of a job offer, Josephine Karpova, whose father worked as a Kenyan diplomat in Moscow and returned home as they opted to stay behind, tells me. She joined her father in Moscow as a medical student in 2006 but is now married to a Russian and has a permanent residency status in Russia.

“Even after you get a job, your would-be employer must write to the immigration office for one to apply for work permit, which takes long to be processed. Upon getting the permit, one must organise for his passport to be translated to Russian, which is a long process. Then the long wait for an immigration card begins,” she tells me over coffee at Star Bucks coffee shop in Kievskaya Metro Station in Moscow.

“It is almost impossible for foreigners to be employed in Russia. With a permanent residency status, I can get a job but there are still some limits. I am in the process of applying for citizenship,” says Josephine, who has been married for 12 years now and has a daughter. “The cost of living in Russia is expensive. When I came here, there was racism but President Putin has done a lot to change some of that.”