Coming to Russia for the 2018 World Cup was with a lot of fabulous stories which became what they are – a mirage. As first time visitors, we expected to see a rustic Russia craving for civilisation. How wrong we were. What we saw dazzled us – state-of-art facilities.
I travelled to at least seven cities where the games held and the environment shocked me. I flew domestic airlines. The aircraft were new, comfortable and noiseless. The airports in these seven cities are top notch, unlike what we have in Nigeria. As we taxied on landing at these airports, it was a great spectacle watching many other aircraft hit the skies one after the other. But the most fascinating was watching aircraft landing as if they were on a queue. I had a quick flashback to the harrowing experience of having a presidential or VIP movement in Nigeria, where aircraft were made to hover in the skies endlessly.
Volgograd and Kaliningrad, for instance, are not as strategic as Lagos and Abuja, but their airports dwarf the ones in the aforementioned places in Nigeria. Little wonder Russia is listed among countries with great aviation industry.
There are a few rustic places but it was apparent that things are looking up for good. All through the 33 days that I spent in Russia, only one instance of racism was recorded. It could be attributed to a happenstance, unlike what we were fed with before we came.
In Saint Petersburg, for instance, when we boarded a taxi, the driver told us that we could make the distance from the airport to Park Inn by Radisson Hotel in 25 minutes for 1,300 rubbles, if we followed the expressway. He gave us the flipside to this trip taking us an hour to travel, but that we will pay 1,150 rubbles. We chose the expressway option and we marveled at what we saw.
Incidentally, going to the airport from the hotel, the cab man took us through the longer route, where the traffic reminded us of Lagos. The heave movement of people while we struggled through the streets captured the size of Russia. But we found comfort in the serene setting of the small lakes, many of them looking at artificial ones provided. This setting wasn’t just bland, we saw tourists in their droves utilise the boats and other voyage apparatuses to enjoy their time.What struck us on our way back to the hotel was that hosting of the 2018 World Cup informed the need for the development in the country that will soon catapult them to being tagged a developed country.
Indeed, going to Saint Petersburg by bus drew the ire of The Punch Sports Editor Festus Abu, when he saw the electric bus plying the roads with passengers disembarking before every traffic light. What drew Abua’s angst against was when our normal bus queued behind the electric bus obeying the traffic light. It looked like a fairytale to Abu. Of course, the silent thought of seeing our bus on the same path with the electric bus.
Surprised! Don’t be. The source of power for the bus in front of ours came from above us, making it absolutely impossible for us to be electrocuted. The roads were eight tracks on each side with walkways several metres apart from vehicular movement. Scenes arising from accidents were quickly demarcated by the relevant agencies with a towing vehicle racing to the spot in less than eight minutes, we were told. Those people who disobeyed the traffic laws by parking on both sides of the roads returned to find their vehicles towed. No preferential treatment. These mechanisms eased traffic in the cities.
Boarding the bus after the game against Iceland in Volgograd exposed us to how people pay for such services. Non-accredited passengers slid their cards through the mechanism by the side of the door to pay for their trips. No conductors. No rough necks or what we call agberos. No indiscriminate dropping and picking up of passengers on the streets. In fact, we walked over six kilometers from where Volgograd stadium was situated before we could board the bus back to the airport to catch our flight to Saint Petersburg. Accredited people walked into the buses free on match days, but you must show your World Cup cards. The bus driver won’t move his vehicle if people stood. No overload, like we say here.
The World Cup reinvented Russia but the beauty of the two halves of the cities was that money was properly utilised so much so that it won’t come as a surprise if the older structures are modernised after the Mundial, given the contrasting outlooks of the two halves. In Russia, high
rise buildings are in vogue. They symbolise the housing estates for the people. The buildings are structured in such a way that the over 140 million people are accommodated. This is not to say that we don’t have the hewers of wood and drawers of water here. They exist. No surprises. If you try to give alms to them out of pity, other Russians urge you not to, insisting that you would be arming them with cash to perpetuate nefarious acts.
The people were friendly. It looked like they had been taught how to relate with visitors. Even with the apparent language barrier, they smiled at your sign language and offered you the option of asking the next person if he or she could solve the problem. Those who understood little English were helpful, with a few using the telephone to get you cabs or explain in their language where you were headed for.
In Moscow, I met Anthony, my Uber taxi driver who picked me from the airport to my Younos hotel. He told me to be very careful of picking cabs on the road, that it is better and safe for me to use Uber or Yandex. When I joked that they couldn’t be like Naija people, Anthony laughed and said, they are ‘better‘ than Nigerians when it comes to ‘negative acts‘. He also told me that most of the drivers understood English perfectly but will pretend not to understand to ‘over charge‘ a passenger who does not speak Parosky- the Russia language. I experienced this when I arrived at St. Petersburg before the Super Eagles Vs Argentina match. A Yandex taxi driver restarted his handset and put me off my order, placing me on a minute per 3RUB on a trip that should take 25 minutes. When I placed my order, the price was to be 215RUB but after 15 minutes into the trip, the meter already had over 500RUB. I stopped the driver along the way and we had a bit of slanging match of words. The police were called to settle the issue. The policeman was efficient and also had some words for the taxi driver for trying to ‘cheat’ me because I don’t understand their language. I was happy as the police ensured my next ride was smooth and for the right price too.
On my train ride from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, I was told by the man behind the counter that the journey will be over 10 hours. I was deflated. The “Abuja/Lagos” by luxury bus scenario started playing through my mind. I almost told the man to cancel my ticket. But someone behind me said, ‘‘go on the train you will enjoy it.’’ With a sigh, I grudgingly told the man to print out my ticket. I went to the sit out area which looked more like sitting at airport lounges. That gave me some kind of reprieve. When I boarded the train, I stopped in my track because it was like being on one of those international flights. Airconditioner, spacious sleeping beds, phone charging points, free wifi, coffee making points and courteous ‘hostesses’. I woke up when the train arrived in my destination, after sleeping off as if I was at home.
Back to the World Cup venues, I can’t recall any encounter with hoodlums within the stadium premises. The stadium was a long walk away, which gave the security operatives enough time to fish out likely lawbreakers. The gateways to the matches were never crowded because there were many options and the devices used to detect fraudulent tickets starts from the first gate. It was absolutely impossible for unqualified people to assess the stadium, irrespective of the time the games held.
All the gates were thrown open early enough to avoid stampede or create a crowded setting where fans lose their valuables to urchins. Did I really see them?
Hosting the 2018 World Cup was a commercial success for Russia, the government and its citizenry as they milked the benefits of a huge influx of people into the country for over 38 days. The average income per capital per head of the Russian must have risen. The citizens’ purchasing power will be increased. The volume of cash and investment which came with hosting the Mundial for the Russian government is unquantifiable. Indeed, all the cities in Russia are construction sites with massive modernisation of the infrastructure to the benefit of the people.
Today is the 2018 World Cup finals between 1998 winners France and Croatia in Moscow. I chose not to preview this game because it would amount to repeating what had been published. I expect an exciting game. No predictions please. Instead, the set of players who are hungrier to lift the World Cup should accomplish their dreams.
