Gasan Magomedov, a 20-year-old prospect of the Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala, was killed by machine-gun fire as he was driving near his home in North Caucasus, Russia over the weekend. It is a tragedy, there is no doubt about that, but it is also a continuation of events that have steeped Russia’s 2018 World Cup in controversy, and now danger.
Reports on the murder of Magomedov read like they are describing a scene from a war-torn country, or a mob hit, not a nation that plans on hosting the greatest sporting event on the planet. As of the writing of this article, the police have made no arrests, there are no suspects, and there are no motives clear to investigators.
Magomedov was a promising young professional soccer player, and he was gunned down in his own neighborhood by machine-gun fire. Not a pistol, an automatic weapon. That such an upstanding member of society could be killed so senselessly is an abomination, and harbinger of what could be coming.
Magomedov was living in North Caucasus, a region with a history of Islamist insurgency and violence, but those who say the whole of Russia is not as dangerous as one exceptional area are missing the point. General safety does not preclude localized violence. That is the lesson of Magomedov’s death.
Even if the criminals behind the killing are brought to justice, that would not change the fact that Caucasus is a day’s drive away from three of the World Cup stadiums for Russia 2018. Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, and Sochi are all threatened by their proximity to the city, and hopefully now everyone will realize that.
If Russia cannot, or does not care to, protect those playing in its own league, how can it be realistically expected to protect the world’s citizens as they flock to it in 2018?
First, there were Russia’s human rights violations. Next, the world was left in disbelief as FIFA swept the controversy surrounding Russia’s World Cup bid under the rug. Now, a professional soccer player has been brutally killed on Russian soil. To see those events as random is not only wrong, but dangerous.
The world needs to make sure things do not escalate to historically tragic proportions. Demanding increased security and endorsing boycotting Russia 2018 are all viable options, but options need to be turned into actions before the conversation surrounding Russia 2018 is reduced to the phrase that follows every predictable failure: “I told you so.”
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