Putin makes sick jibe about 200 Russian hooligans beating up ‘thousands’ of England football fans
Russian president condemns violence at Euro 2016 before making joke at the expense of Three Lions fans
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin made a sick dig at England fans today when he said that he didn’t know how 200 Russians could beat up thousands of Brits.
Putin made the startling statement at an Economic Forum in St Petersburg, but still condemned the violence as a disgrace.
He said: "Do you know when the football cup started there was a fight of Russian fans with the British ones, but I don't know how 200 Russian fans could fight several thousand of the British."
The president had earlier acknowledged that violence had happened and that the thugs responsible should be punished.
He said: "At the moment we see that there are many problems in sports. The European football cup is taking place at the moment, but I believe that people are paying more attention to the fan fights.
"And I regret saying this. I regret seeing that people pay such importance to fan fights. I guess the responsibility for such acts should be as personalised as possible."
The Russian president impressed that everyone must be treated the same.
"And the way we treat the violators has to be the same. They all have to be equally treated. We are going to work in this way in our fighting against stimulants and dopers, and we are going to work with fans' associations.
"And I believe there are many sensible people among the fans who realise that any violations cannot express their support for the team they love - any violations only jeopardise the teams they support.
"But I realise that we still have a lot to do in this area. But let me emphasise that we have never supported any violations in sport, we have never supported it at the state level, and we will never support this.
"We will never support any dopers or any other violations in this area, and we are going to co-operate with all the international organisations in this regard."
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Putin's cruel jibes comes after seven Russian thugs attacked Spanish tourists outside Cologne Cathedral.
Two men and a women were assaulted outside the holy building at about 7pm on Thursday night.
German media reported that the men were wearing balaclavas and gloves.
The three Spanish tourists were rescued by plain clothes police officers.
Six of the seven Russians have been arrested.
The thugs were found to have had tickets for Saturday's violent match between England and Russia.
According to police, they were travelling to the airport to go back to Moscow.
On Wednesday evening, dozens of Russians were arrested in Lille for brawling with English supporters.
36 English and Russian footie fans have been incarcerated and 66 are believed to be injured after more fights.
Trained Russian fighters known as 'Ultras' have been wreaking havoc at this year's football tournament
The violence started after Saturday's match between England and Russia, which saw Ultras dressed in MMA gloves and gumshields batter Three Lions fans.
Many Brits have been knocked unconscious by the vicious brutes, who are used to regular brawls at local football matches.
It is believed that many of the Ultras come from a brutal gang known as the Orel Butchers.
The violent group were formed in 1996 and publish their own magazine called Testosterone.
They have posted sick training camp videos online, showing how they train their members in brutal hand-to-hand conflict.
Other Ultras wreaking havoc in Marseille and Lille are supporters of Zenit St Petersburg, a club with a long history of homophobia and racism.
In 2012, supporters of the club tried to ban non-white and gay people from playing for the club.
But Putin's condemnation of the violence is in stark contrast to the comments of his colleage, Igor Lebedev.
The politician, who sits on the executive committee of the Russian Football Union tweeted his support for the Ultras.
He said: “I do not see anything terrible in fighting fans . On the contrary, well done, our guys. Keep it up!”
He also said to Russian site Life.ru: “In nine out of 10 cases, football fans go to games to fight, and that’s normal. The lads defended the honour of their country and did not let English fans desecrate our motherland. We should forgive and understand our fans.”
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