Vladimir V. Putin is not a soccer fan — ice hockey has always been his passion — but eight years ago, in the hours after FIFA declared Russia would host the 2018 World Cup, he told a story designed to illustrate that he grasped just what the event, and the sport, could do for his country, and for the world.
Mr. Putin had landed in Zurich only a few hours earlier, after Russia had been awarded the tournament. As the country’s prime minister at the time, he wished to bask in the glow of an unexpected victory, not associate himself with even the possibility of defeat.