World Cup Extravagance Shows Russia Hasn’t Mastered Cost Control
The tournament isn’t as wasteful as the 2014 Winter Olympics, but that’s a low bar.
Zabivaka, the official FIFA World Cup 2018 mascot, will be there.
Photographer: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images
If the record cost of the Sochi Winter Olympics of 2014 was the embodiment of Russian government wastefulness, the soccer World Cup, which starts on Thursday, appears far more restrained. Yet, despite its best efforts to bring expenses under control, President Vladimir Putin’s regime still hasn’t learned how to be parsimonious.
The most-often quoted cost assessment for the Sochi Olympics is $51 billion, $11 billion more than the second most expensive Olympics, the 2008 Beijing summer games. The Russian government has never admitted spending that much. Instead, it has cited laughably low numbers: Putin himself mentioned 214 billion rubles (some $6.4 billion at the January 2014 exchange rate). I prefer the more detailed analysis provided by a team led by the anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny: $45.8 billion, all but 3.5 percent of it paid out by the government, state companies and VEB, the state development bank.