Selfie with Putin: Presidents and Princes from S. Arabia to Paraguay, but Zero Western Leaders (2018 FIFA World Cup)

Putin – superstar. Let me take a selfie with him while I can. That was probably what the president of Lebanon was thinking. Putin didn’t mind.

On video below: a crowd of excited presidents, PMs and princes after watching live the opening World Cup 2018 match between Russia and S. Arabia.

All CIS leaders are there (naturally, except Ukraine’s Poroshenko) and Putin is using the opportunity for an informal Commonwealth meeting.

Silly me! I should’ve known: the promise of an interesting football (soccer) match is a fabulous pretext to lure the male half of the species to any event, lol. 😉

That said, four countries announced that their ‘leaders’ would boycott Russian World Cup, and these are: Ukraine, Poland, UK and Iceland. This is no joke, they are boycotting the games in all seriousness, although they fail to notice they are in fact isolated, not the other way around.

Although this wasn’t a joke, some good jokes do come to mind in this regard…

Despite the British politicians beating in hysterics, the UK team still arrived, and Russians are treating them with the usual utmost hospitality. But I heard the British players were afraid to try the traditional Russian karavai bread, presented to each team as an ancient Russian hleb and sol’ (bread and salt) welcoming ceremony. Rumor has it they thought Russians added ‘novichok’ to the dough, lol. Other teams had no problem eating the welcoming karavai – it must be a UK-specific problem. (Just to clarify, in case someone missed it: this was a JOKE).

Jokes aside, as a result of the karavai fiasco, UK team became a target of jokes among other teams. Generally, the UK team somehow, in a very bizarre Inverted Collapse kind of way, is reminding me of the old Soviet paranoia. When Soviet people were allowed abroad, they would look around suspiciously, afraid to try anything and seeing spies everywhere. It’s sad how far the West has degraded. And that’s the GREAT EARTH SHIFT, baby!

TIP: By the way, when in Russia, if you are presented with a welcoming karavai, aka, hleb and sol’, it is a great honor. It is polite to pinch off and try a small piece of bread, dipping it in a bit of salt. It’s considered very rude to refuse, but I guess the Brits missed the memo.

An interesting echo to my previous big report: Armenia Maidan Paradox: Why New Pro-West Armenia Government Pledged Allegiance to Russia & Eurasian Union? :

Armenian PM Pashinyan is also in Moscow, second time in less than a month. So is president on Moldova Igor Dodon (I’ll talk about him and Moldova’s shift next week on Patreon), along with other CIS/EAU leaders. Among other things, Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook that Putin introduced him to the president of Azerbaijan, which he values highly. As I wrote in the above-linked report, Azerbaijan and Armenia are in a state of cold, and at times hot, war over Nagorny Karabakh, with no diplomatic relations. Only Russia can help re-establish peace. Before Putin interfered as a peacemaker, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan weren’t on speaking terms.

 

INTERESTING PRELIMINARY STATS FOR RUSSIA 2018 WORLD CUP:

11 Russian cities will host the games throughout the month. New, slick and cool infrastructure has been built in each city, including airports, stadiums, sports complexes, hotels, parks, restaurants, river cruises and more. The new FIFA president already announced that this is the best World Cup in the entire history of the event. Comparing Russian World Cup 2018 to previous World Cup 2016 in France: beautiful modern cities, great organization and well-behaved fans vs. riots, crime and mess.

The largest group of fans comes from… the United States. World Cup 2018 tickets have been sold to the US fans: 92,000. Who said that soccer isn’t popular in America? Perhaps it matters who’s hosting it?

 

English subs – Various world leaders flock to Moscow, but no Western leaders?.. Must be a coincidence — NOT

#Russia2018 mascot Wolf Zabivaka (‘Goal Scorer’) greets arriving world leaders at the airport:

 

Remember to check out my previous posts:

• This Summer Moscow Becomes World’s Tourism Capital – Prepare for Magnificent Show! #EarthShift #Russia2018 (#Skripal false flag failed!)
• Tourist Boom Headed for Nizhny Novgorod: River Cruises and Front Row Seats For the Action #Russia2018 #EarthShift
• Natalia Oreiro Feat – United by Love (#Russia2018 World Cup) РУССКИЙ, English, Español #EarthShift