Construction of the World Cup fan zone outside Moscow’s top university is fuelling a rare protest in Russia as students worry thousands of partying football fans will destroy one of the capital’s few green spaces.
The area will have concerts and entertainment for up to 25,000 fans as well a giant interactive screen for those without tickets to watch matches.
It is being built in the park below the main building of Moscow State University — one of the city’s seven Stalinist skyscrapers — which overlooks the Luzhniki stadium where the opening match will be played on June 14 as well as the final on July 15.
Many of the university’s over 6,000 students and employees are not thrilled about their campus hosting the fan zone because of the disruption and damage it will cause.
“We started the protest when they told us last year our semester would be cut short because of the fan zone,” said Maria Shekoshkhina, a 26 year-old PhD student.
Security services, she said, maintain that the university labs have to close for the World Cup period because of their work with radioactive materials.
“There was also a risk that students will be moved out of their dorms to make way for the National Guard, like in other World Cup cities,” she added.