With the 2018 World Cup less than two years away, "Russia is scrambling to resume construction at one of the tournament's flagship stadiums where labour disputes have threatened to derail efforts to meet deadlines," according to the AFP. Work on the futuristic 68,000-seat stadium in St. Petersburg was "halted last month over a contractual disagreement between local authorities and the firm overseeing construction." The firm building the venue, Inzhtransstroy-SPB, "quit the project." Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, who also heads the country's football union, said last week that "he was concerned about the situation but expressed hope that the new contractor, Metrostroy, would turn things around." Mutko said, "Poor quality work has been done on a string of engineering systems. This was all discovered when the contract was terminated. Now we need to build it with composure. We have to start being more positive." Work on the "ill-fated" Saint Petersburg stadium began in '07 with an estimated budget of 6.9B rubles. It has "dragged on nearly a decade" and is now going to cost an estimated 39.2B rubles ($620M) (AFP, 8/17).
