Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev allocated 2.9 billion rubles ($88 million) to seven regions for constructing stadiums for the 2018 soccer World Cup.
The money "will provide funding for design and survey work for the construction or renovation of seven stadiums for the World Cup 2018 in Russia," Medvedev said in a Thursday.
The funds will be shared between the regions of Mordovia, Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Sverdlovsk and Rostov, Interfax reported.
The total budget for the World Cup is $20 billion, of which $7.5 billion will be spent solely on the arenas. The rest will be put toward improving the country's transport infrastructure.
Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said in May that the government wants to avoid going more than $8 billion over and above existing spending programs, RIA Novosti reported.
"All parameters that could have been cut have been," Shuvalov said. "The last figure that Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko … came to me with was 250 billion rubles [$7.6 billion]."
The 2018 World Cup — Russia's first as host — will take place from June 8 to July 8, in 11 host cities.
Ten of the 12 World Cup venues will be built from scratch.
