You're reading: Bloomberg: Putin’s $11 billion World Cup may bring Russia little cheer

President Vladimir Putin has spent six years and more than $11 billion preparing nearly a dozen Russian cities to host the soccer World Cup, the biggest such event the country’s held since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

As millions of fans spread out across European Russia over the next four weeks, the Kremlin is hoping to show a friendlier face and break some of the international isolation Russia’s suffered in the years since it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. From Yekaterinburg in the Urals to Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, the championship reaches cities few foreign visitors have seen before.

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