Russian President Vladimir Putin still plans to attend only the final match of the 2018 FIFA World cup, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, nothing that the head of state rooted for the Russian team.
“The fact that the president did not attend the matches [of the Russian team] does not mean that [he didn’t cheer for the Russian football players] he did root for our team,” Peskov said in a conversation with reporters.
Peskov explained that “initially, the president’s schedule contained no attendance of any games save the opening and closing matches.” “We expect the president to attend the closing match,” he said.