The organizers of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia have "responded to economic pressures by reducing operating budgets in some of the host cities for the tournament," according to DEUTSCHE WELLE. The stadiums "will be saved, but the reductions will take place elsewhere." Russia, battling against the economic crisis, "wants to trim the costs" in hosting the World Cup, cutting spending by 27B rubles ($490M). Affected by the cuts above all "were the construction of team bases, but also hotels for FIFA guests, fans and journalists." The Russian Sports Ministry published a list of 25 objects on the website "regulation.gov.gu" that would be lost. There will be changes in 23 other projects and the total cost of the World Cup is to be reduced to 637.6B rubles ($11.6B). Especially affected by these cuts "is the city of Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga," where 14 of the hotels planned for traveling supporters will be canceled. According to the Ministry, the savings are "exclusively from budgets of 'legal persons'" (DW, 4/7). The AP reported Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that 25 hotels "would be cut from the organizers' program across the 11 host cities." As these hotels were to "have been funded by regional government or by companies, Mutko said the savings will not reduce spending by the federal government on the tournament" (AP, 4/7).
