Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that while the plans for infrastructure build in 11 cities for the 2018 World Cup are unchanged, "costs of construction are mounting," according to Paul Nicholson of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. The original stadium infrastructure cost was estimated at 100B rubles ($2.5B) with 13.5B-14B ($340M-$353M) rubles for each project. Mutko said that right now, the government target cost of 13.1B rubles ($331M) "has only been met for the Samara stadium." The cost of the other stadiums "will all, most likely, be revised upwards." For example, the cost for stadiums in Volgograd and Nizhniy Novgorod have already risen by 3.2B rubles ($81M). The Russian Ministry of Economy said that "the construction costs will not only rise for the stadiums, but also for the planned road reconstruction." The expenses "for regional and local roads already rose" by 3B rubles ($76M) to 26B rubles ($658M). Previously, "the total costs for the World Cup infrastructure build had been estimated" at 664.1B rubles ($16.8B) (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 9/30).
