The norm – Kenya: Russia against Croatia is more than football | The standard

The clash between Russia and Croatia today will be a clash of two countries each locked in individual battles of affirming national identities.

Russians and Croats have been friendly nations since the Second World War and are expanding to date – partly because of their common Slav heritage.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yugoslavia disintegrated shortly after the death of its famous communist Josip Broz Tito.

His death marked the beginning of the ethnic fragmentation that led to the break-up of Yugoslavia in countries such as Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

Since then, there has been a process of affirming the identity and heritage of football gleaned from the then powerful Yugoslavia, which provides the platform for saying: "we are here".

It is about Croatian nationalism that was repressed during the period of Confederation.

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Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi? has shuttled between its capital Zagreb and Russia (it will be in Sochi today) – a feat that bads the unity of its nation and for all intents and purposes affirms its identity.

After their shootout win over Denmark, Grabar-Kitarovi? went into the locker room to embrace players and coaches.

This is no different with the Russians, whose President Vladimir Putin has spent most of his time staying close and making calls to the men of coach Stanislav Cherchesov. There was incredible celebration prowess, practically by all Russian journalists included, whenever Russia scored a goal at this World Cup.

Cuddles and kisses here and there by the fans in the red, blue and white kit of the Russian football team.

Foreigners and television staff making signatures were caught in this orgy – with some presenters ruffled and their makeup destroyed.

There is an increase in the number of fans wearing t-shirts emblazoned with CCCP, Russian abbreviation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) – remember the Russian alphabet?

In case you forgot; S is C in Cyrillic alphabet used in Russia and R is P. Thus, the closest English approach to CCCP is SSSR.

In 1988, when the USSR reached the championship final of Europe against the Netherlands, they wore jerseys boldly sporting CCCP.

With this race at the 2018 World Cup, it seems like fans are willing to travel back in time with their team to fight for glory, as they envisioned the hammer and sickle (a symbol of peaceful work) in one of the Soviet flags. They are also hoping for semifinals.