February 8 – Russia’s Sports Ministry is suing companies building World Cup stadiums for 2.9 billion rubles ($50.8 million) over delays in constructions schedules.
Russia is expected to spend a record $13.2 billion on the tournament, more than half of which will come from the federal budget.
According to local reports, the ministry wants to recover $17.8 million from the construction firm of Gennady Timchenko, which is building stadiums in host cities Nizhny Novgorod and Volgograd. It hopes to recover the rest of the sum from contractors building stadiums in Saransk, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad and Rostov-on-Don, over violations of “a number of obligations on construction schedules.”
Alexei Milovanov, the head of the Sports Ministry’s intermediary Sport-In, insisted the lawsuits would not derail construction deadlines.
“All the stadiums will be built in line with the current and approved work schedules and will be fully ready for test matches planned for March-April,” he was quoted as saying.
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