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Russian State Companies Spend Millions on VIP Ticket Craze for World Cup

Moskva News Agency

Russian state companies have spent millions of dollars on VIP tickets to World Cup matches, the RBC business outlet reported Sunday. 

The media outlet cited 13 tenders on the government’s official state procurement website, totaling 200 million rubles ($3.3 million) for match tickets to the tournament.

Tickets to the stand-off between France and Denmark on June 26 at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium were most in demand, with 81 total tickets bought. In comparison, only 49 tickets were bought by state companies for Russia’s opening match against Saudi Arabia. 

Russia’s VTB bank and several affiliated structures were the biggest buyers of World Cup tickets, according to the tenders, with VTB24 spending some $1.5 million dollars on tickets and the state-run Sberbank spending around $281,000.

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