British and Russian clubs clash amid diplomatic chill
London, (MILLAT ONLINE):Football fans out in London Thursday night for a crunch meeting between British and Russian teams had little interest in the political tumult overshadowing the tie even as relations between the two countries plumb historic lows.
“We just came to support our team,” said Serge Artiomov, 40, a supporter of CSKA Moscow, who played Arsenal in north London.
The reception in the British capital so far had been “brilliant”, he told AFP, convinced fans would behave themselves.
“Of course, it will be peaceful,” he said outside the Emirates Stadium ahead of the Europa League quarter-final first leg, which ended with a 4-1 win for Arsenal.
Meanwhile, small contingents of boisterous fans of the Moscow side arrived at the stadium chanting noisily.
The match comes around a month since former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found poisoned in the southwestern English city of Salisbury.
London and its major Western allies blame the attack on Russia, which has vehemently denied involvement, and in the ensuing fallout scores of diplomats have been expelled by both sides.
Russian football fan Evgeny Meshchnanov, 49, described the political crisis as “a dirty game from our side”.
“It seems to me it’s bad times for Russian people — and for relations,” he told AFP outside the Emirates Stadium, with a CSKA scarf wrapped around his neck.
Barry Dixey, of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association, said fans were focused solely on the game.
“Like most football supporters you put blinkers on and just look at the sporting aspect,” he said.
Russia’s embassy in London warned last week that visiting fans faced a “high probability of anti-Russian attitudes” due to the “increasingly threatening rhetoric of the British side”.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said Thursday that Russian and British security services were “not cooperating” on security issues for the game, or the return leg in Moscow next week, due to the Skripal case.
“Our interior ministry has not received any replies to our requests to visit (London),” he said.
A spokesman for London’s Metropolitan Police did not respond to the Russian claims, but told AFP the force had put a “proportionate policing plan in place”.
The game appeared to pass off peacefully, with Arsenal fans streaming out of the exits afterwards buzzing from their team’s win and few CSKA supporters to be seen.