Ukrainian Foreign Minister’s call for boycott of FIFA World Cup ‘silly’, says Russian lawmaker

Russia will always be happy to welcome Ukrainian football fans and it is “silly and unlawful” to prohibit them from attending the 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia this summer, a Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday.
The lawmaker, a member of the Russian State Duma Committee for Physical Culture, Sport, Tourism and Youth Affairs, Dmitry Svishchev, also said the football festival would be successful.
On Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin urged Ukrainian nationals to abstain from traveling to Russia for the World Cup as their security was not guaranteed there.
`Prohibiting the Ukrainian fans from going to Russia for the World Cup is both silly and unlawful.
“There are long-standing cultural and family ties, traditions between Russia and Ukraine.
“Football fans, including those in Ukraine, have been waiting for the World Cup for many years, and now they are prohibited from attending the tournament,’’ Svishchev said.
He added that the boycott call could be “just a revenge, silly anger and envy” caused by the fact that Ukraine had failed to qualify for the tournament.
The lawmaker also said that Russia hosted the Confederations Cup last summer and “there were no issues with security at the tournament.”
The Ukrainian national football team finished third in their group during qualifying for the 2018 World Cup and missed out on the chance to play at this summer’s tournament.
Russia’s first-ever FIFA World Cup will take place from June 14 to July 15 in 11 cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, and Sochi.