Russian World Cup compared to 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany

A view of the 45,000-seat Samara Arena in Samara, Russia. FIFA says a World Cup stadium in the Russian city requires "a huge amount of work" to be ready. Photo / AP

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has compared the upcoming football World Cup, due to be held in Russia this northern summer, to the 1936 Olympics held in Nazi Germany.

"I think the comparison to 1936 is certainly right," Johnson said before the British Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee, before suggesting that the thought made him feel sick. "I think its an emetic prospect, frankly, to think of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin glorying in this sporting event."

The British diplomat was agreeing with a statement from Ian Austin, an MP for the Opposition party Labour, who had suggested that Putin wanted to "gloss over [his] brutal, corrupt regime" with the World Cup, one of the most-watched sporting events in the world.

In 1936, just three years after Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany, both summer and winter Olympics took place in the country. Initially, Germany tried to bar Jewish and non-white athletes from the games, though Hitler backed down after threats of a boycott. Most countries participated in the games, despite criticism of the Nazis. The Soviet Union did not participate in any Olympic events until 1952.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said today that boycotts of the 2018 World Cup would be fruitless.

"If some officials refuse coming here, it is their personal business," Dvorkovich said, according to news agency Tass. "The history shows that boycotts never led to something good."

Johnson's comments came during continuing fallout over the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English town of Salisbury this month. Johnson said last weekend that it was "overwhelmingly likely" that Putin was behind the poisoning, which British authorities say used a nerve agent, identified by the British as Novichok, that the Russians developed.

In the aftermath of the attack on Skripal, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to expel 23 Russian diplomats it said had links to espionage. Russia later expelled 23 British diplomats and closed the British Council, a government-backed international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, in the country.

Today, Austin said that the idea of Putin using the World Cup as "a PR exercise to gloss over the brutal, corrupt regime for which he is responsible" filled him with horror.

Vladimir Putin 'will use World Cup like Hitler's Olympics', agrees UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson https://t.co/ZsFiDRSJyw pic.twitter.com/fZ5EPf4pxo

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) March 21, 2018

Johnson has previously suggested that some British officials may boycott the World Cup. However, he said today that it would be wrong to punish British fans or the English football team by banning them from attending the World Cup, but that it would need to have an "urgent conversation" with Moscow about how these fans would be protected.

The Foreign Secretary also told the committee that far fewer Britons had bought tickets so far for the World Cup in Russia than for the previous 2014 event in Brazil. Britain's most senior police officer warned last year that English football fans were at risk of an "extreme level of violence" from Russian hooligans if they attended the sporting event.

Russia's Dvorkovich, who is also chairman of the local organising committee for the games, attempted to downplay such fears. "This will be the best world championship ever," he said. "Our country is very hospitable and we are waiting for everyone here."