The problem is 2018

On December 7, about a thousand fans blocked the Leningradsky Prospekt Zeppu Blatter, Vladimir Putin and Vitaly Mutko can only rejoice that the meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee, at which it was decided to hold the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and not a week later, when all European television channels were lined with personnel from Slovaki Zhilina, where fans of Moscow Spartak almost threw the Champions League match, demanding a fair investigation of the murder of their comrade Yegor Sviridov. Sviridov was shot dead on Kronstadt Boulevard in Moscow on the night of December 5 to 6. Eight participants in the fight, entailing the death of a 28-year-old fan, immigrants from Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan, were detained, but by the morning they were released from the police. “Journalists and human rights activists are actively shouting about Russian fascism and write a lot about how they kill visitors, but they silence stories when corrupt cops are covered by lawmakers, immigrants from rich and influential diasporas, who pace the streets with weapons and feel absolutely unpunished,” said The New Times the next day after the murder Sviridova is one of the fans of Spartak. “We will raise noise.” On the evening of December 7, about a thousand fans blocked the Leningradsky Prospekt and passed a march from the Airport metro station to the Sokol station, chanting: “Russia for Russians” and “Your children will answer for this murder”. On December 7, the match in Zhilina was interrupted for 20 minutes. After the signing of this issue, on December 11, fans planned to arrange a action of Sviridov’s memory near the Vodny Stadium metro station, and immediately after that the nationalists called for young people to reach Manezhnaya Square.

The Moscow authorities are trying in every possible way to hush up the scandal. The Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate says that there is nothing wrong with the passage of Leningradka, they promise to start negotiations with fans and investigate the crime. The best illustration of the helplessness of the authorities was the picture captured by reporters on Leningradsky Prospekt, when the commander of the Moscow riot police, General Vyacheslav Haustov, led a couple of dozens of his fighters, had fallen off the crowd of fans, trying to convince them to leave the roadway. To accelerate students and intelligent pensioners on the 31rd of each month - the fighters of Haustov are suitable for this. To cope with several hundreds of aggressive fans chanting “Russia for Russians” is scary.

At the same time, you should not think that the performance of the fans was a surprise for the authorities. In July 2010, after the murder on the “pure ponds” of the fan of the same “Spartak” Yuri Volkov, fans already left protests. Then the topic managed to hush up. But after the Zurich solution to the problem of nationalism in Russia and the helplessness of corrupt law enforcement agencies will be in the focus of all the world media. So, in order to successfully hold the World Cup, it is necessary not only to build arenas, airports, roads, it is necessary to repair the entire public structure in the country in recent years, if only Blatter, Putin and Mutko do not want millions of foreign fans and tourists to be met in Russian cities for many thousands of chanting: “Russia for Russians”.

A look at the 2018 World Cup from the day of today-in the main topic of this issue of The New Times.