Russia's unexpected run to the WC quarterfinals helped bring positive PR to the host nation.GETTY IMAGES
The Russian football team may be out of the World Cup, "but the Kremlin is winning when it comes to making over its global image," according to Sabra Ayres of the L.A. TIMES. By "most estimates," Russia's hosting of what is "likely to be the most watched sporting event of the year" has been a "success." The lowest-ranked team at the start of the tournament, Russia made it to the quarterfinals after beating Spain. By doing so, "a breath of patriotism and even a national hero -- Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev -- emerged." All this has given Russia President Vladimir Putin "a fresh edge" as he prepares to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Helsinki next week. He will arrive in the Finnish capital "at a time when any negative world view of Russia has been muted by good news." Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Int'l Relations in Prague and an expert in Russian security and politics, said, "It's good to be seen as the center of the world for a while. The World Cup has been rather successful in terms of being a soft power win, not just in terms of the fanfare, but also the coverage in press that says, 'Russia isn't such a horrible place after all.'" The question now is whether the Kremlin and Putin will "leverage or squander the positive PR." Galeotti: "If Putin actually wants to use that soft power, then it also must become a constraint on his behavior" (L.A. TIMES, 7/10).
