Moscow Nights and dyevushkas, Zabivaka the Wolf and football...
Tick-tock. Galina Alekseevna from Moscow passes daily by the clock counting down the time to the beginning of the 21st World Cup, which is located at the Manezhnaya Square near the Kremlin. She rarely looks at it since the time flies and she remembers well that the clock was "installed" a thousand days before the official start of the World Cup, which will begin on 14 June with a match between the host nation Russia and Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium, and will end at the same venue with the finals on July 15. Long-time Muscovites (as the residents of the Russian capital are known) and other citizens of the Russian Federation know that the great event will be demanding and that this is their chance to present themselves to the world in the best possible light. Russia is known for rarely failing at anything, so there is no reason to even discuss such possibility.
“I think our city authorities will do everything to show how strong and good we are in organizing major competitions. Russia deserves it and can do it”, proudly says Galina, thanking me for asking about her opinion. She is just one of the millions of Russians who think the same.
The clock is ticking away really fast and there are just a few more days until the first whistle at the famous Luzhniki Stadium, which can receive up to 81,000 spectators. This beautifully restored old Lenin Stadium along the Moscow River (even today, his statue stands in front of the main entrance) was once the main stadium for the Olympic Games in 1980, held at the time of the Cold War between the Warsaw Pact and NATO.
The World Cup in Russia, the first one on the territory of one of the former USSR states, will involve 32 national teams. The 64 matches will be played at 12 stadiums and in 11 cities. The cities that will host the best footballers in the world are, in addition to Moscow (Luzhniki and Spartak Stadium), Kaliningrad, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov on Don, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd and Yekaterinburg. The preparations have run smoothly, according to hosts who are still putting up the finishing touches. I have visited several stadiums and seen for myself that they are real contemporary oases of architecture. However, not all signs have been put up yet, and they are needed to make it easier for the millions of fans who bought the tickets to find their way around.
Fuleca the Armadillo from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and Zakumi the Leopard from South Africa in 2010 will be succeeded by Zabivaka the Wolf, although I personally expected a bear! In a competition, he defeated a cat and a tiger in an astronaut costume.
In addition to the fact that television broadcasts will be watched by millions of people around the world, thousands of people from Croatia and the region will travel to Russia. They have managed to buy quite expensive tickets through internet sites and lotteries, and they will be able to use it as the Fan ID – a visa for entry to the Russian Federation.
The FIFA and Russia have decided to prevent scalpers, so it will not be possible to enter the stadiums using someone else’s name. Unruly fans will be met with a strict police regime, according to daily reports in Russian newspapers, and any possible attempt to behave like a hooligan is likely to be remembered by them for the rest of their lives (in my humble opinion). There is no joking around with the Russian authorities, the laws have to be respected, and their monuments and culture appreciated. I warmly recommend to all the visitors to behave in a proper way so that the support and love towards the national team would be in focus, and nothing something else.
Of course, that does not mean they cannot taste a drop or two of vodka. And the Russians have come up with a plan for that as well. There will be no alcohol sold near the stadiums, so people will have to manage on their own. At present, a half-litre bottle of vodka can be bought in the Russian supermarkets during the day for four euro?! At night, the sale of alcohol is strictly forbidden, just like the alcohol consumption in public areas. If the police find you drinking a can of beer in a park, you could be fined with seven euro!
Most fans from, for example, Croatia or Serbia, will travel to Russian cities as part of an organised group using charter flights or buses. There are also enthusiasts who will travel by hitchhiking, motorbikes, bicycles and trains. For example, Kaliningrad is extremely easy to reach through Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. It takes more time to reach Rostov on Don, and you must cross Ukraine. Cities easiest to reach are Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
The media have announced that the most expensive city of the World Cup is Nizhny Novgorod, and I have to admit there is a good reason for that. An overnight stay in a no-window shack can cost over 60 euro. The problem is the lack of hotels and hostels. This city had been closed for a long time and strangers were unable to visit it.
The enthusiasts who will travel alone to Russia will have the most problems with accommodation costs (unless they have already booked their rooms) and with transportation costs. Although Aeroflot, Utair, Rossiya and Pobeda have introduced numerous new flights, the prices are rising every day. Fan ID holders can use trains for free, provided they reserve their tickets at a special website in time.
A lot of money and major infrastructure investments are revolving around football. After the month of football is over, when the stadium lights are turned off, the host cities will have new stadiums, new roads, hotels and airports, and that is no small matter. In a few years, Russia has developed nicely and raised the quality of life of its citizens to a higher level. When I visited Rostov on Don, the trees near the new airport had just been planted, while the fountains were still waiting to be finished and filled with water.
What the Russians are privately afraid of are large price increases. The exchange rate for the local currency rouble is difficult to predict. At the time of international sanctions against Russia, the rouble weakened by ten percent in just one recent afternoon! Although Russians calculate things in the rouble, they mostly keep their savings in foreign currency. They have learned the lessons of the past when all their savings were lost (we can also remember similar scenarios).
An average Russian does not have the same standard of living as an American, wages are not similar and the cost of living is lower. Nevertheless, it seems to me that in Moscow and St. Petersburg the cost of housing and restaurant costs are even higher than in London and New York?! If that is so now, what will happen when the World Cup truly starts?
Anyway, Russia will not be a cheap destination during the World Cup. One thing is for sure – the visitors will be welcomed at every step by friendly people, pretty dyevushkas and warm Slavic souls. And with the top-notch football, partying with fans from around the world, the Moscow Nights song, and the high-quality vodka infused with memories. Only this and nothing more, as Edgar Allan Poe would say in his The Raven. And we would add – that is quite enough! Tick-tock.
