British Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has stoked tensions ahead of the World Cup by claiming Russia president Vladimir Putin will use the event like Adolf Hitler used the 1936 Olympic Games.
Relations between the two countries have plummeted in recent weeks after former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a nerve agent near his home in Salisbury.
The attack has incensed UK officials, who hold that Russia are responsible to what would amount to, if the allegations are confirmed, a chemical attack on British soil.
Russia in turn has reacted angrily to the suggestions, and both nations have recalled diplomats as accusations and counter-accusations have flown back and forth.