In recent years, relations of Russia with the entire Western world have noticeably deteriorated, but during the World Cup, Russia was flooded with foreigners.
I took portraits of football fans, asking their opinion of Russia, given the fact that many of them had been living in Russia for weeks. All foreigners were very satisfied with their staying, everybody liked Russia and all noted the fact, that foreign media, especially in British, had been telling horror stories about Russia, that the fans would be beaten, robbed and so on, advising not to go to Russia.
Fans said that Russia turned out to be absolutely different from what they had been told. Everyone was delighted, many wanted to come here again and everyone would advise their friends to visit Russia. Football is indeed unites, breaks the boundaries and alleviated the political differences.