Putin on Guard for 2018 World Cup in Russia

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Putin on Guard for 2018 World Cup in Russia

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MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin sought to transform the burgeoning scandal over corruption in soccer’s international governing body into an extension of the confrontation between Russia and the West on Thursday, accusing the United States of global overreach while invoking the fates of Edward J. Snowden and Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder.

Most world leaders remained mum, apparently waiting for more details to emerge, but Mr. Putin went on the offensive immediately.

He used the moment to again portray Russia as under siege — in this case threatened with the humiliating loss of the right to host the 2018 World Cup, a move considered unlikely.

Mr. Putin called the arrests of top FIFA officials in Zurich on Wednesday “another blatant attempt by the United States to extend its jurisdiction to other states,” according to a transcript of an overnight news conference posted on the Kremlin website. Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information about global surveillance programs, and Mr. Assange, whose website published United States military and diplomatic documents, have both eluded American prosecution by taking refuge in other countries.

Mr. Putin also defended Sepp Blatter, the Swiss president of the organization, probably an important endorsement as he battles to retain the presidency in a vote scheduled for Friday amid the scandal. He was not among the soccer officials arrested.

“I have no doubt that this is obviously an attempt to prevent Mr. Blatter’s re-election to the post of FIFA president, which is a grave violation of the principles that international organizations function on,” Mr. Putin said. (There were various catcalls on Twitter about Mr. Putin’s respecting the rules of international organizations when it came to Ukraine.)

Analysts saw various reasons for Mr. Putin to turn the FIFA scandal into a confrontation with the West.

First, there is the distinct possibility that the Kremlin worries that the fallout from the scandal will cost Russia the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

Russia is expected to spend $11.5 billion on new stadiums and other infrastructure projects that have already started, according to government statistics. In the past, such lucrative contracts often went to Kremlin favorites. After the resounding success of the Sochi Olympics at home despite a boycott by Western leaders, Mr. Putin is most likely looking forward to 2018, when he will be up for re-election.

“I think that the developing FIFA scandal really is seen by the Kremlin as a prelude to a possible cancellation or denial that Russia host the 2018 World Cup,” said Konstantin von Eggert, an independent political commentator.

Although such an outcome is considered unlikely, it would be even more humiliating for Russia than the economic sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis, which magnified domestic economic problems caused by the steep drop in the price of oil.

Nicolai Petrov, another independent analyst, said, “He wants to prevent this, and so he attacked first.”

Second, Mr. Putin never misses an opportunity to portray Russia as under siege, playing on old Cold War fears, and the FIFA scandal dovetailed with that.

“Everything that involves Russia even indirectly is used by the authorities in Moscow to remind Russians that they are living in a fortress besieged by the West,” Mr. von Eggert said.

The state-run news media immediately chimed in to echo Mr. Putin’s comments, with a report on Rossiya 24 noting sarcastically that the United States was remote from the general affairs of FIFA because it did not even play what the rest of the world calls football.

“The United States, which plays soccer, not football, has drawn its best resources to investigate a foreign scandal, to meddle into affairs of others and impose its rules and laws,” the report said.

Even if some scandal involving Russia’s winning the hosting rights were to emerge, the government would undoubtedly dismiss it as another Western forgery, analysts said, just as it dismissed reports of its direct involvement in the war in Ukraine as lies propagated by the West despite repeated sightings of Russian men and matériel.

Mr. Putin’s initial remarks already implied that there was no such thing as an objective corruption investigation.

After the arrests on Wednesday, Swiss prosecutors announced a criminal investigation into the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Russia’s World Cup plans survived an internal FIFA investigation last year, but the Russian bidding team members had refused to turn over their computers. All equipment used in the bidding process was subsequently destroyed, the investigators said.

In a telephone interview from Zurich on Wednesday, Vitaly L. Mutko, the Russian sports minister, denied that the Russian bidding committee had used bribery to ensure that his country would host the World Cup. An impartial investigation turned up nothing, he said.

“So once again, they’re going to go through the case; once again they’re going to question people,” Mr. Mutko said. “You know, you can talk about corruption for as long as humanity will continue to exist.”

Gazprom, the state-controlled Russian energy giant, announced that it would continue its sponsorship deal with FIFA despite the scandal, a company spokesman, Sergei Kupriyanov, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

Nothing quite grates on Mr. Putin and Russians generally than the fact that the nation’s loss of superpower status opened up greater opportunities for the United States to act with impunity anywhere in the world. Mr. Putin’s pronouncements on this issue have won him a global fan club as the man who stands up to American bullying. His strategy might backfire in this case, however, because FIFA is widely perceived as being riddled with corrupt officials and Mr. Putin could be seen as defending them.

In standing up for Mr. Blatter, Mr. Putin seemed to be defending a loyal friend, as is his habit, pointing out that Russia had “special relations” with FIFA. Mr. Blatter has generally taken the stance that sports and politics do not mix, and Mr. Putin said he endorsed that.

When President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine suggested this year that teams boycott the 2018 World Cup over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Mr. Blatter issued a rare public rebuke, saying not only that the World Cup would take place as scheduled, but also that it might help solve the crisis.

After defending Mr. Blatter’s reputation, Mr. Putin continued his offensive against the United States.

“We know the United States’ position on the former National Security Agency agent Snowden, who uncovered illegal acts by the United States around the globe,” Mr. Putin said. Mr. Snowden fled to Russia after making his identity public and has since been granted a temporary residency permit, but he is still seeking asylum in the European Union.

“Everyone, including Europe, is talking about this, but nobody wants to give him asylum, guarantee his safety; nobody wants to quarrel with their partners, their old partners,” the president said.

Mr. Putin then moved on to Mr. Assange, who has eluded extradition from Britain by taking refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since June 2012. Mr. Assange had a short-lived show on the government-financed television station RT.

“What is he being persecuted for?” Mr. Putin asked of Mr. Assange, who is under investigation in the United States and also wanted for questioning in Sweden on sexual assault charges. “For sex crimes? Nobody believes that. You don’t believe that.”

At the news conference, Mr. Putin asked himself rhetorically why he was recalling those cases.

“Unfortunately, our American partners use these methods to achieve their selfish goals and persecute people illegally,” he said. “I don’t rule out that this may be the same case with FIFA.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/sports/vladimir-putin-fifa-corruption-soccer.html