Kommersant: “Premier league”
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with sport fans, scoring an overwhelming victory.
On December 21, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met for 90 minutes with the leaders of national sport-fan movements and visited the grave of Yegor Sviridov, killed December 6 in a fan-related street brawl. Unable to quash the fan movements responsible for his death, Putin decided to take the helm instead.
In the evening, before attending a Government Presidium Vladimir Putin arrived unexpectedly at the Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy. While at the ministry, he met with outstanding representatives of the premier-league football fans who were talking to Minister Vitaly Mutko. The minister tried to dissuade them from any further ethnically motivated violence aimed at people from the Caucasus – an activity that, he claimed, does not befit Russian sport fans.
The young people present appeared to be astonished when Putin walked in. For him, it seemed the meeting was now doubtless more important than the unveiling of a war memorial in Moscow's Victory Park scheduled for the same day.
"A member of your club has been killed by a repeat offender," Putin told them. He emphasised the word "repeat offender" and explained that the attacker had served two prison terms for vandalism and drug abuse in 2009.
"The motives for his release in 2010 are unclear," Putin said, shrugging his shoulders.
There was commotion among the fans sitting at the table. They probably knew this much better than the prime minister.
Vladimir Putin noted that "our nations" had created a multi-ethnic culture during the years of their co-existence.
"There is a major snag here," he said. "It's very hard to live together. But if we treat this diversity correctly..."
Putin then told the fans how Kuzma Minin, a Tatar, had roused the people to liberate the whole of Russia in the 17th century.
However, the fans were primarily fixated on the "snag" he mentioned earlier.
"We have always been extremely immune to xenophobia. But one gets the impression that our immunity has started to deteriorate," the prime minister went on.
The fans didn't argue, and it would be strange if they had: their behaviour is evidence enough of a problem.
"An open country cannot be nationalistic. I wouldn't give ten kopecks for the health of someone who goes to the North Caucasus and makes offensive statements about the Koran," Putin said.
The prime minister added that he did not want to change the existing registration procedure, which had been liberalised under the Russian Constitution.
He told them that the country would fall apart if they started running around like madmen with razor blades in hand.
"We would inherit a territory torn asunder by internal divisions ... There would be nothing to be proud of ... Some people are trying to control this process. They will shout out loud that only they can save the country. I don't want anyone [like that] taking control over you and manipulating you," Putin said.
Afterwards, the prime minister asked the journalists to leave and conducted a 90-minute therapy session with the fans. It appears that he likes to test the strength of the ideas involved in such events as the December 11 Manezh Square riots.
The fans behaved in an exemplary manner, blaming a negative attitude from outsiders. The prime minister suggested that they take part in preparations for the FIFA World Cup in 2018.
The fans also complained that the Amkar Perm club had quit the premier league because it could no longer finance itself. Putin replied that numerous Perm companies wanted football to develop in the region, but that cost-effective managers were hard to come by.
The fans talked about fixed matches and claimed that any game could be bought for 30,000 roubles. The prime minister, however, refused to believe them and seemed unimpressed with the sum. If it were true, then all premier-league games would be fixed, he believed.
After the meeting, the seemingly hypnotised fans shook off their daze. The prime minister further tried to dissuade them from acting the way they did, and with good results.
They looked as if they were beginning to come to...
Fans and journalists then rode in two large buses to Moscow's Lyublino Cemetery, where the slain Yegor Sviridov is buried. When asked by a journalist for details from the private conversation with Vladimir Putin, a fan replied: "How are you doing?"
"Not too good," the journalist admitted.
"Don't worry, we'll write your article together after we get out of the bus," the fan assured him.
The fans said nothing about what the prime minister had talked to them about. Perhaps they were proud of the fact that such a conversation had even taken place and that they were being addressed from such a high level.
"Look! They stopped all the traffic. It will take us only ten minutes to get to the cemetery. That's the way to ride. After this, people will start saying that the fans paralysed traffic in Moscow," one man said to his friends.
They seemed quite satisfied that, indeed, traffic can be stopped without rioting.
Headed by Vladimir Putin, the fans behaved quietly at the cemetery. Some of them took flowers, handed out at the entrance, to hide their faces from the TV cameras.
Although it was already dark, Yegor Sviridov's grave could be seen from afar – wrapped in the Spartak flag like a scarf.
By Andrei Kolesnikov
