By Nina Bachkatov and Andrew Wilson
The Word Cup in Russia has been successful, but the benefits of the so-called ‘people-to-people diplomacy’ do not translate into geopolitical dividends. Russian officials, medias and ordinary citizens had all the reasons to describe the World Cup as a great PR operation, demonstrating to prejudiced Westerners that their country has the organisational capacity to handle such a huge project while sending through the world sympathetic images of themselves. Continue reading “Socio-political football in Russia”