The Russian government ordered 30B rubles ($560M) in cuts in spending on the 2018 World Cup on Monday but said that the construction of stadiums "would not be affected," according to Katya Golubkova of REUTERS. Russia has been "forced to trim spending because of economic problems worsened by the collapse of global oil prices and economic sanctions imposed on Moscow" over its role in the crisis in Ukraine. A government decree said that spending on the tournament "would now be limited" to 631.5B rubles ($11.8B) and Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that most of the cuts would "be in the number of hotels built." Russian FIFA representative Dmitry Efimov said, "This is a reflection of the difficult economic situation but this should not have a negative effect on the event itself." Russia President Vladimir Putin said that he is "confident Russia will host the finals despite investigations into alleged corruption at FIFA and how Russia was awarded the 2018 finals." Putin will "do all he can to ensure the finals are not taken away from Russia," especially as a presidential election is due in '18 and he sees the tournament as a chance to "showcase Russia as a modern state." Before the new government decree, the World Cup organizers had "already axed plans to build 25 hotels, cut the number of training grounds and reduced the capacity of some of the venues to save on building costs" (REUTERS, 6/22). The AP reported Mutko said that Russia has also "reached a deal with FIFA to cut the number of training bases provided for the teams from 48 to 36," or three per stadium. More than half of the total budget will be "funded by the federal government," which is providing 335B rubles ($6.25B). Other funding sources "include regional governments, state-run companies and private investors" (AP, 6/22).
