2018 World Cup: Russia reduces its budget by €475.3m, bringing it to €10.3bn

The organising committee of the 2018 World Cup announced a reduction of 29.2bn rubles, or about €475.3m (-4.5%) to the budget on the orders of Russian Prime Minister -- and former President -- Dmitry Medvedev on 22/06/2015. The budget of the 2018 World Cup is now 632bn rubles (about €10.3bn).

Russia is facing a serious economic crisis, due in particular to the Ukrainian crisis and the resulting sanctions, particularly from the European Union. Gross domestic product fell 2.2% in the first quarter of 2015 (compared to the first quarter of 2014).

Regarding the budget of the 21^st World Cup, 335.2bn rubles (€5.45bn) will be funded by the state, 97.2bn rubles (€1.58bn) will come from regional government budgets and €199.2bn rubles (€3.24bn) will come from other sources.

• "It's all about optimising preparations. We will primarily save on unnecessary hotels," said Vitaly Mutko, the Russian Sports Minister and member of the FIFA Executive Committee, on 21/06/2015.

Russia 2018: saving on stadiums

• Vitaly Mutko announced in April 2015, that the number of seats at the Luzhniki Stadium…