Russia security personnel
With Russia hosting a massive influx of tourists in 11 cities across the country, the question on many people’s minds is: Is it safe?Russia is well aware that the world’s attention is fixed on the country this summer and it is eager to show that it can easily accommodate the more than one million foreign fans expected to descend on the country during the World Cup.
Ensuring that the tournament’s matches go ahead without a hitch is a matter of supreme importance to the Kremlin, and the government has spared no expense: Official estimates claim that more than 30 billion rubles ($479 million or N146 billion) have been spent solely on security, reports The Moscow Times.
Most foreign fans will be concerned about the threat of terrorism or potential encounters with Russia’s infamous football hooligans — far right groups known for promoting and participating in violent skirmishes at matches.
During the Sochi Winter Olympics four years ago, the Russian authorities named their extensive security measures around the city “the Ring of Steel.”
Before they began, the Caucasus Emirate (CE), an Islamist extremist organization based in the volatile North Caucasus region, threatened to attack the games in nearby Sochi.
In the months running up to the event, Russia experienced several suicide-bomb attacks in Volgograd — another World Cup host city — at tram and bus stations. However, thanks to the Russian authorities’ tight security, the Olympics did not see any violent incidents.
he terrorist threat in Russia has evolved since then. After 2015, most of the CE’s members pledged allegiance to Islamic State, a terrorist organization banned in Russia, and many have traveled abroad.
Nevertheless, IS militants have on multiple occasions threatened to attack the World Cup and have threatened President Vladimir Putin personally.
The high-profile nature of the tournament makes it an attractive target for militants intending to draw international attention to their cause. To mitigate this, the Russian authorities are attempting to replicate the Ring of Steel across all 11 host cities this summer.
After the violent clashes between Russian and British fans at the Euros in France in 2016, many are bracing for a repeat at the World Cup.
However, since then, there has been a marked change of government policy towards the “hooligans,” whose activities the authorities previously appeared to tacitly approve (former Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, for example, occasionally appeared with well-known hooligan leaders in public.)
Many of the hooligan leaders have been blacklisted from attending matches, with facial-recognition technology introduced at host stadiums to ensure that they cannot enter and prompt any unrest.
Moreover, the authorities have taken extensive measures to ensure that the games are secure, from introducing Cossack cavalry brigades and deploying drones to monitor the crowd for signs of disturbances, to installing physical measures such as concrete anti-ram barriers near stadiums and metro stations.
Streets around the stadiums have become pedestrianized and metal detectors have been installed on most major railway and train lines.
Urban centers like Moscow and St. Petersburg are natural hubs for criminal activity, given the large concentrations of people convening there, particularly foreign visitors.
While overall crime levels in the country are declining — the Interior Ministry in 2017 noted a 4.7 percent decrease year-on-year — petty crime is still likely to pose a risk to foreign fans.
