Putin accuses US of meddling in arrest of FIFA officials
Print Edition
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin defended Russia’s right to host the 2018 soccer World Cup yesterday and accused the United States of meddling outside its jurisdiction in the arrest of top officials from world governing body FIFA.
Putin said the arrests in Switzerland on Wednesday were an “obvious attempt” to prevent FIFA head Sepp Blatter’s re-election but that the 79-year-old had Russia’s backing.
“If anything happened, it did not happen on US territory and the United states has nothing to do with it,” he said. “This is yet another blatant attempt to extend its jurisdiction to other states.”
Putin said Blatter had been pressured to strip Russia of its rights to host the 2018 World Cup and lambasted Washington’s extradition requests.
“Unfortunately, our American partners use such methods to achieve their selfish aims and illegally persecute people,” he said, citing former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
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