TASS, Moscow :
Russia has slapped 384 citizens with administrative bans to attend sports events, Deputy Department Head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Countering Extremism Sergei Pershenkov said at a roundtable discussion in the State Duma on Tuesday.
“This year, we have managed to considerably reduce the number of gang-related hooliganism offenses and extremism at stadiums,” Pershenkov said.
“This year, 2,527 citizens have been held liable for committing offences during sports events. In the first nine months, 1,270 protocols have been drawn up for breaching the rules of spectators’ behavior during official sports events,” he added.
Read also Some 4,000 volunteers pass Russian language training to work at 2018 FIFA World Cup As a result, bans on the attendance of sports events have been imposed under 401 case files, the interior official said.
“The blacklist banning the attendance of sports events is also constantly updated. As of November 1, it includes 384 offenders,” Pershenkov noted.
“At the same time, the problem that remains relates to the participation of football fans and their cohorts in illegal activity.
Special attention is paid to actually the provocative facts of demonstrating the symbols of banned extremist organizations and Nazi insignia, which discredit Russian fans.
This year, the police have cut short 12 such facts,” Pershenkov said.
On the eve of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the country’s law-enforcement agencies drew up a blacklist of fans banned to attend sports events.
Read also Most Moscow hotel reservations for FIFA 2018 World Cup made by fans from US, China, Mexico Russia’s Interior Ministry earlier said that if the blacklisted persons showed up at the places of official sports events, they would be slapped with administrative penalties ranging from 20,000 rubles ($350) to 25,000 rubles ($435) or an administrative arrest for a term of up to 15 days.
After successfully hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup this summer, Russia is now in full-swing preparations to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The country selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
