Already during the preparation for the World Cup several problems became visible. Laws, that limited the freedom of assembly and the freedom of movement passed the Russian parliament. Workers rights were violated on World Cup facilities, corruption schemes led to the loss of public money and anti-fascists were accused to have prepared terrorist attacks to bring them behind bars.

It became a signal for civil society that it is necessary to prepare to bigger repressions during the Championship. We communicated to non governmental organizations, studied publications in media outlets and learned about the situation in St. Petersburg on the ground.

Everything appeared not so badly, as expected. For example, according to charitable organization «Nochlezhka», homeless people were offended less than usually. Human rights organization «Civil Control» did not record any cases on one of the articles of the Criminal code which are most used for repression — 282 (extremism). Also tourists did not face any problems with the requirement of register in Russian within a day of their stay.

Nevertheless, the system could not be reconstructed completely, and in a pursuit of image of "the favorable state" repressive methods were used.

Officials prevented three meetings of social activists. The police detained 25 people for participation in public actions, the staff of the Сenter against extremism — 8 people for "the football fan past", frontier guards — more than 120 people who were looking for shelters in the European countries. Because of legal uncertainty business of carriers suffered. Two foreigners who left a gay club were beaten. In one day there was an attempt to kidnap a gay person from Chechnya.

Find more detailed information in our report.