A Cheer for Ukraine Triggers Russians at the World Cup

A huge, easy-to-politicize sports event like the World Cup in a country that has been fed militant propaganda can be a risky endeavor. There’s always an undercurrent of hatred just under the surface of the merriment. This is true of the 2018 games organized by Russia. Thankfully, the bad feeling is not strong enough to cause violence.

Russia has proved a friendly, generous host to foreign players and fans. Isolated outbursts of hateful rhetoric have been widely ridiculed rather than amplified. The governor of one of the country’s regions got no support on the social networks when he tweeted that Germany lost at the group stage because “the souls of the tens of millions of victims” had “taken revenge” for the carnage of World War II. Tamara Pletnyova, a legislator, became a laughingstock when she told Russian women to avoid interracial sex with foreign fans. A Moscow tabloid did get some traction with a slut-shaming column about World Cup dalliances: Women seen with foreigners have been threatened and insulted both online and offline. No serious incidents have been reported, however, and Russian women fought back by explaining why they might prefer fit foreigners to potbellied local machos.