US campaigning against Russia 2018 W/Cup ―Senator

Leading Russian senator Andrei Klimov, said on Thursday that he has credible evidence the United States aims to “discredit” the 2018 World Cup to be held in Russia.

Klimov who is head of the international affairs committee of the upper house of parliament and of the newly established protection of state sovereignty commission, said: “The commission has received credible evidence showing that American government officials are directly steering their European colleagues into using the subject of sport to the utmost to discredit Russia in 2018.”

With Russia and the United States involved in a diplomatic war over Ukraine and Syria and with US domestic politics dominated by accusations of Russian “meddling”, the accusation will come as no surprise.

The US recently insisted Russian news channel RT register as a “foreign agent” and Klimov has been at the forefront of efforts to retaliate against Western media in Moscow, recently saying that: “Today the myth of free speech in the U.S. has fallen and, along with it, the basis for allowing the mouthpieces of American propaganda in Russia to live comfortably.”

According to Klimov: “We have grounds to believe that an attack will occur on the football World Cup.”

Klimov has provided no evidence about what kind of attack Washington might be preparing, but it seems inevitable that fiercely anti-Russian US media and NGOs will attempt to exploit the doping scandal with the hope of enmeshing Russian footballers as well as highlighting human rights in Russia, particularly around stadium construction.