[Wittmann 44]

I've been to Russia a few times and lived in St.Petersburg for a short time and I've nothing good to say about the place other than the women are interesting. Its expensive, corrupt, dangerous and there's a serious undercurrent of neo-nazis (ultra nationalists call them what you will) at the football games. All rather ironic given the Nazis killed around 30 million of them.

If I was non-white I would seriously consider not going to the game as the only thing Russians hate more than Poles and Chechens are colored people. I would agree with Andee and I wouldn't be surprised to see fans die and the Russian police aren't noted for their soft touch either as anyone who saw pictures of them breaking up anti Putin demos last summer will guess. If you get a visa and breach its terms you will be in serious difficulty so don't sleep out and miss your plane. My brother was roughed up by Russian border police when leaving on a train to Finland because his visa was 10 hours out of date. 150 Euros "solved" the problem.

Terrible place to have the final IMO. I know it goes by rotation but Moscow is surely the furthest east place that it could be held.

Hoping for the best but the worst wouldn't surprise me.