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While the Russian World Cup ended with a defeat against Croatia, some supporters noted the absence of President Vladimir Putin, who had participated only in a single match. the Russian World Cup since 1991
Putin was in Russia's first game against Saudi Arabia but jumped the next four – despite the national side, the tournament's lowest, defying expectations and reaching the quarterfinals.
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"Where did the president come from?" asked Nezygar, a popular news channel on the Telegram mail service.
"Tell Putin that our guys would have won when he came to the match!" fan Pavel Gondarev wrote on social media to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who witnessed the defeat of the shooting.
The online news site Znak.com has written that Russians on social networks "are ganging up trying to guess where Vladimir Putin could have The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday Reuters that Putin had only been scheduled to attend the opening and closing parts of the tournament, he played down the game because the matches "occur when he is at the top of his day's work."
"He does not play soccer itself, but of course like the overwhelming majority of Russians, he is a fan.This is not obsessive – he can not be an obsessive fan because he does not can not afford that – but he likes interesting football, "said Peskov
while Putin was absent from the Russia-Croatia quarter-final, his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic was in the stadium, wearing the red flag and white of the Croatian flag. French President Emmanuel Macron will participate in the semi-final between France and Belgium, which Putin does not intend to attend.
The competing theories in Moscow revolved around the reasons why Putin seemed to be kept out. Putin, a black judo belt, is an ardent fan of ice hockey and The Bell, a Russian media outlet, quoted a senior official as saying that the reason for Putin 's absence was a simple lack of support. interest in football
According to the political analyst, the real explanation was the wish not to be associated with a Russian defeat, whose perspective was greater as the camp faced opponents of higher caliber in the knockout phases. "Vladimir Putin likes to be associated with victories and triumphs, but does not like to be associated with defeats and losses. He has always had this trait and he has grown over time," said political scientist Valery Solovey. victory over Spain, which prompted the wild holiday in the capital, and the loss in the quarterfinals to Croatia.
Peskov said that Putin had watched the games remotely. After the defeat, Putin invited Russian players and the coach to discuss the World Cup with him and call them heroes, Peskov said.
Tom Balmforth of Reuters reported from Moscow.
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