Moscow might be 10,000 kilometres from Mexico City and even further from other latin and South American capitals but you would not know while on a walk around the Kremlin or St Basil’s Cathedral. The city of Moscow has been invaded by thousands upon thousands of fans, and the party under the watchful gaze of Marshal Zhukov is a riot. So many football jerseys from not just the 32 playing in this World Cup, but even a couple of Indian ones (like this writer wore).
In the delightful June sunshine, even the weather gods approve of this festival, you saw more latinas than Russian blondes, an old Soviet decision of granting visa-free access to many countries from that continent has brought plane loads of them. Travellers from Mexico stuffed onboard an A380 had travelled from Mexico via Houston and Dubai to make it this far, a 17,500 kilometre trip that took over a day of flying time.
Even St Basil’s church with its psychedelic coloured domes and a global symbol of this city and country looked positively tame in comparison. If there was one negative, it was that Red Square was cordoned off, at least for the past few days, apparently as work on a FIFA fan park is underway.
At the luzhniki Stadium, Moscow’s main football stadium, it was a sea of green as Mexican fans, replete with their Aztec headgear were partying in the shadow of one of a few statues of the last ruler of the Russian state named Valdimir. And a fleeting thought passing through one’s mind about what lenin would have made of all this. But he was an internationalist so other than the blatant commercialism of the beer outlet next to his statue blasting the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, one really does not know.
The Stadium itself has three times more Mexican fans than German fans and when the Mexicans scored the stadium erupted. It is actually impossible to describe the noise in words but beer glasses were thrown up into the air as were hundreds of sombreros. What a game and it ended and the party around lenin just became so much louder. Sure there was the odd crying German Frau but the spirit of the game and of the fans was there, a middle-aged Mexican channeling his inner Montezuma, rather his outer Montezuma consoling her.
But for all the negativity that surrounded the tournament before it began including outrageous statements from some western politicians this has been a grand advertisement for Vladimir Putin and Russia and shown the Russians as a warm and hospitable people, still laughing at old jokes about Breshnev. The security has been suprisingly low-key, the football brilliant and Russia great.