World politics threatens to rain on Russia’s parade

Russia will pull out all the stops to host a successful Fifa World Cup from June 14.

Russia will spend more than Sh1.3 trillion ($13 billion or 10.9 billion euros) on the most expensive World Cup ever staged.

Understandably, much of that money is being spent on infrastructure work that should give cities across the European part of the country a more modern feel.

Head of the tournament’s Local Organising Committee, Alexei Sorokin, has had his hands full and has been at pains to convince the world that everything has been going according to plan.

“We do not see anything to be worried about,” he told Russian daily Izvestia.

Russia is spending more than Sh20.6 billion to make sure stadiums built for the World Cup do not go to waste after the tournament ends.

Since Russia won the bid to host the tournament on December 2, 2010, amid claims of corruption in the bidding process, Russia has not had a smooth ride in preparing to host the 64 matches of the tournament.

Not that countries that have previously hosted the tournament had it easy. Russia’s case has been made more difficult by its history, global politics and the country’s local politics.

German journalist Hajo Seppelt unearthed state-sponsored doping among Russian athletes in 2014 just months after the country had hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, throwing the country into a spin.

Subsequent confessions by Russian athlete Yuliya Stepanova and her husband Vitaliy Stepanov brought negative attention to Russia, setting in motion a series of events that culminated in the International Olympics Committee banning Russian athletes from representing their country in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Russia’s poor human rights record has not helped the country’s effort to convince fans it is ready to host a tournament that prides itself in building friendships globally.

The arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny on May 4, 2018 in nationwide demonstrations against the swearing in of president Vladimir Putin for a fourth term in office.

In 2015, Putin’s most vocal critic Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in the heart of Moscow near the Kremlin, the most secure place in Russia which also hosts Putin’s residence.

Most recently, the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England, in March 2018 again led to tensions between Russia and the United Kingdom, with British Prime Minister Theresa May pointing fingers at Russia.

More than 20 countries, among them USA, expressed solidarity with Britain, and expelled more than 100 Russian diplomats.

USA alone expelled 60 Russian diplomats, and Russia reacted furiously, expelling 60 American diplomats in retaliation.

Add that to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and Russia’s involvement in the war in Syria, and you see why president Vladimir Putin is keen to use the World Cup to sell itself to the world.

Football has been on a downward trend in Russia and the country is also trying to use the tournament to revive fan interest in the domestic leagues.

It is only a matter of time before the tournament starts, but it has been a long, tiring journey.