The number of racist displays by Russian football fans has doubled in the country that will host the World Cup in 2018, with most cases going unpunished, anti-discrimination campaigners say.
Researchers from the Moscow-based SOVA Center and the UEFA-affiliated FARE Network logged 92 incidents of discriminatory displays and chants by Russian fans in and around stadiums in the 2014-15 season, against a total of 83 for the previous two seasons put together.
At the World Cup, "there will be incidents inside stadiums, around stadiums. The question will be how frequently they occur, how serious they are," FARE executive director Piara Powar told AP.
"Given the closeness to the World Cup, we're now talking about a situation where we are trying to minimise those incidents rather than eradicate them altogether."
Black people were increasingly targeted by Russian fans last season. The report identified 10 cases of abuse of black people or players, compared to five in the previous two seasons.
In July, Zenit St Petersburg striker Hulk, who is black, said he faced racist abuse in "almost every game" in Russia.
However, just one incident of racist or far-right football violence was reported against 21 in the two previous seasons. Researchers linked the sharp fall to better police monitoring of hooligan groups, and an exodus of far-right fans volunteering to fight in the Ukraine conflict.
While Russian soccer authorities are increasingly punishing clubs for racist displays by their fans, many cases went unpunished, and sometimes resulted in black players being disciplined for responding to abuse with rude gestures.
The Russian Football Union "is getting better at sanctioning clubs but there's no apparent plan to work with fans to change the fan culture," Powar says.
Russian officials repeatedly say they are tackling racism, but argue that the problem is no worse than in many other countries.
"Racism in football is a general problem and FIFA is fighting this all around the world," Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said in September. "Russia is a FIFA member and we are also fighting this occurrence."
