Russia 2018 World Cup Notebook - Day 31

It’s Macron v Kolindar in the World Cup final

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Croatian president Kolindar Graber-Kitarovic and her French counterpart Emanuel Macron will both be present at Luzhniki Stadium Sunday evening when their teams meet in the final. Kolindar has lent her support to her home team since they started competing in the tournament and flew to Nizhny Novgorod in the same aeroplane with fans for Croatia’s round of 16 match against Denmark which Croatia won 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Afterwards, she was pictured hugging her victorious compatriots in Croatia’s dressing room, and having an animated discussion with coach Zlatko Dalic. Macron also attended France’s semi-final match against Belgium, which Les Bleus won 2-1 to reach the final. King Phillippe of Belgium also attended the match with his wife Queen Mathilde. On Friday, Kolindar said she could not wait for Sunday’s final. She has also sent a Croatia jersey to Russian President Vladimir Putin, given one to British Prime Minister Theresa May and will not mind giving French president Emanuel Macron one when they meet in the VIP area on Sunday.

Russian oligarchs

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Alisher Usmanov who owns shares in Arsenal, and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich are some of the richest men in Russia. Russia is one of the countries with the most dollar billionaires in the world, and most of them have made their money in gas, mining, transport and petrol. But there are also businessmen of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth during the era of Russian privatisation in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990s.

The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former USSR officials as a means to acquire state property. Most of the oligarchs emerged under Soviet leader and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of market liberalisation. Most of the oligarchs are stinking rich and it is not uncommon to see rich kids crushing with super-fast cars with number plates concealed to evade police in Moscow. Forbes reported that 84 of the world's richest people in 2013 lived in Moscow. Their wealth combined, totalled to over 366 billion dollars. For comparison, New York had 62 billionaires with a combined wealth of 280 billion that year.

Secretive lives

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Russia and USA are the world’s two nuclear super powers, and the former has implemented stringent measures to guard against ‘enemies of state’ who could jeopardise the programme. There are small communities with sensitive military, industrial, or scientific facilities, such as arms plants or nuclear research sites. Examples are the modern towns of Ozyorsk (Chelyabinsk-65) with a plutonium production plant, and Sillamäe, the site of a uranium enrichment facility.

There are "closed cities"’ and "closed towns" in Russia, mostly settlements where travel or residency restrictions are applied and specific authorisation is required to visit or to remain overnight. They may be sensitive military establishments or secret research installations which require much more space or freedom than is available in a conventional military base.

Russian coach Nepomnyashchy took Cameroon to Cup quarters

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Cameroon became the first African country to reach the quarter-finals of the Fifa World Cup in the 1990 edition of the tournament held in Italy and Russian coach Valery Nepomnyashchy is remembered for guiding Indomitable Lions to achieving that feat. Born in Slavgorod, Nepomnyashchy, now aged 74, works as coach of FC Baltika Kaliningrad which plays in Russia’s second-tier football league.

Nepomnyashchy has also worked as technical advisor for Russian Premier league team CSKA Moscow and Uzbekistan’s national team. Similarly, many African footballers have played in the Russian Premier League, among them Nigeria's Ahmed Musa, Cote d’Ivoire’s Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow), Nigeria's Emmanuel Emenike (Spartak Moscow) and Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o (Anzhi Makhachkala).