Why The Russian Police Had Such A ‘Quiet’ World Cup

You would think that the Russian police would have had one of their busiest periods on record during the recent World Cup — which has won the country glowing coverage worldwide.

With hundreds of thousands of soccer fans pouring in from all over the world for matches happening across the country, a rise in serious incidents was surely inevitable — especially crimes such as theft or drugs use.

In fact, this past month has been unusually quiet for the Russian police, with many regional departments reporting no serious incidents at all, according to Meduza.

The reason for what the website calls this “Good News” month is that the Russian police were told to stop publishing any “negative news” detailing serious crimes while the World Cup was going on.

Instead, they emphasized reports of crimes that had been prevented.

An investigation by the online outlet 7×7 showed the breakdown. In the month before the World Cup all police departments reported serious incidents such as robbery, fraud, hijackings, and murder. But in the month since the World Cup began on June 14, that figure went down to zero for many departments.