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With The Americans second season getting rave reviews, who hasn’t been a little nostalgic for some old-fashioned, Cold War-style tension between the U.S. and Russia? And who can really blame a few U.S. politicians for being upset about Russia’s human rights record and its aggression in the Ukraine – and perhaps even a little jealous with Mother Russia for having just hosted the Sochi Olympics, and for having won the rights to host the 2018 World Cup over the U.S.?
On March 7, Senators Mark Kirk (R., Ill) and Dan Coats (R., Ind) wrote FIFA head Sepp Blatter (as if he doesn’t have anything else to worry about) asking him to expel Russia from FIFA, to ban them from participating in June’s Cup, and to pull the 2018 Cup from Russia based on the country’s aggression in the Ukraine. The Senators’ letter highlighted FIFA’s past decision to ban Yugoslavia from the 1992 Euro Championship and the 1994 World Cup as precedent and suggested that “a more deserving World Cup 2018 bid should be re-considered instead.” We wonder if the Senators had a particular emergency host in mind.
A pair of Russian politicians responded in kind four days later, essentially copying and pasting the Senators’ text and making a few edits for their own open letter to FIFA. Alexander Sidyakin and Michael Markelov, members of Russia’s State Duma (an elected legislature), wrote that the U.S. should be banned from FIFA and the 2014 Cup based on its “aggression against several sovereign states” including Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Syria. Sidyakin tweeted a picture of the letter:
Apparently this translates to something like “An eye for an eye, a ball for a ball, do not allow the U.S. to participate in the World Cup!” Unfortunately, with fewer than 200 retweets as of this writing, the lack of internet infrastructure in Russia may be limiting the success of this grassroots initiative.
What’s next in this war of words? Smart money is on silence. The Senators got their wish (we’re guessing) by increasing visibility into what is happening in Crimea. The Russian politicians offered an aggressive response that seems to fit with the overall vibe Russia is putting forth right now. And from this vantage it seems unlikely that Sepp and FIFA benefit from engaging in this at all. However, if the teams happen to meet in the Round of 16 this June, the hyperbole might make this seem like Rocky-Drago on the pitch.
