Putin welcomes World Cup as Russia win

MOSCOW: Russia welcomed the world to the soccer World Cup on Thursday as fans streamed in, the hosts savored a 5-0 victory on the pitch and President Vladimir Putin’s government derided Western efforts to isolate him.

The Kremlin leader, greeted by a huge cheer ahead of the hosts’ opening game against Saudi Arabia, spoke of showing the world a hospitable Russia and of sport overcoming differences.

Russia is grappling with Western sanctions imposed after its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine four years ago, but a crushing win in the first of 64 matches of a month-long festival was all many Russians were thinking about.

Talking of a love of soccer uniting the planet “as one team”, Putin said: “In this unity, over which no powers reign, in which there are no differences of language, of ideology or of faith, lies the great power of football, and of all sport.”

Western powers chose not to send senior representatives to the opening ceremony but, despite some muttering this year as relations soured further, there are no sporting boycotts like the one that marred the 1980 Moscow Olympics, or doping bans of the kind that excluded many Russians from the last two Olympics.

“Attempts at a boycott were doomed from the start,” Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, a close Putin ally, and long-time sports minister – himself banned from the Olympics – told Izvestiya newspaper. “It shows how foreign politicians are sometimes cut off from real life.”

The president, newly re-elected after 18 years in power, heard British singer Robbie Williams dominate a colorful half-hour opening ceremony at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium with what the Kremlin listed as an array of 15 foreign leaders — though that included eight from ex-Soviet neighbors as well as two from Russian-backed breakaway regions of Georgia.

Putin watched the game with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, stretching across FIFA President Gianni Infantino to offer a consoling handshake to his Saudi guest as Yury Gazinsky put Russia a goal up after 12 minutes. The comfortable win raised hopes that the low-ranked hosts might progress into the tournament’s later stages.

“Russia in Centre Field,” headlined the state-run newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta. “The main victory is already won,” it said, praising an organizational effort in which a dozen stadiums have been built or rebuilt and a huge security operation rolled out.