Hours left for 2018 FIFA World Cup grand opening

YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. The 2018 FIFA World Cup grand opening will take place today in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium.

Among the guests of the World Cup are high-ranking officials from a number of countries, including foreign leaders.

In particular, the heads of state and governments of Armenia, Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Moldova, Panama, Paraguay, Rwanda, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and South Ossetia will attend the ceremony and the match in Luzhniki, TASS reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the opening as well.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is in Moscow and had a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin earlier on June 13.

Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 abovementioned cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan