Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko expressed his condolences over deadly blast at a metro station St. Petersburg earlier on Monday and warned against using this tragedy to discredit planned international sports events in Russia. Mutko also said that the incident should in no way be used to cast the shadow over the country’s preparations for hosting global sports events. Russia is currently in full-swing preparations for hosting the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. 
The FIFA Confederations Cup, which is also viewed by experts as a rehearsal, a year prior to the FIFA World Cup, will be held between June 17 and July 2 at four stadiums in Russia and they are Moscow’s Otkritie-Arena, the St. Petersburg Arena, Sochi’s Fisht Arena and the Kazan-Arena. Then official opening and closing ceremonies of the tournament were scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg.
The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums across the country namely in the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

Source: QNA