Russian President Putin to attend World Cup final

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the World Cup final on July 13 at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.

The announcement was made on Friday at a briefing given by his official personal assistant Yuri Ushakov.

“On July 13, it’s planned that the President will attend the final match of the World Cup. This is in connection with Russia hosting the next World Cup (in 2018) and the baton will be handed over to us by our Brazilian colleagues,” Ushakov said.

Putin will travel to Brazil to take part in a BRICS (association of five major emerging national economies) summit, which will take place in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil from July 15.

(Reporting By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy, editing by Ed Osmond)