Russia boosts spending on 2018 FIFA World Cup preparations

MOSCOW. KAZINFORM Russia has increased spending on preparations for hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup by 4.7 billion rubles ($81 million), according to a government resolution posted on the government's legal information web portal on Wednesday.

The expenditures on the program's implementation were raised from 638.84 billion rubles ($11.01 billion) to 643.55 billion rubles ($11.09 billion).

According to the document, the expenditures include 355.16 billion rubles ($6.12 billion) of federal budget funds, 92.21 billion rubles ($1.59 billion) to be allocated from regional budgets and 196.18 billion rubles ($3.38 billion) to be provided by organizations.

Russia won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup over four years ago in a tight race against the joint bid from England, Portugal, and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of Belgium and the Netherlands.

Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, and Samara.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.

Source: TASS.