Could this summer’s World Cup jamboree change Moscow for ever? | Shaun Walker

Hundreds of thousands of fans from have been in the capital for weeks and their presence has helped produce a laissez-faire attitude which may not prevail

‘The celebrating has finished,” said a Russian police officer, curtly, to a drunk reveller who was trying to make his way to the bars of Nikolskaya Street through a police barricade in the early hours of Tuesday. “We have an order not to let anyone pass.”

Just as thousands of England fans arrive in Moscow, the city’s long World Cup party seems to be winding down. With only two games left in Moscow – England’s semi-final against Croatia on Wednesday and the final on Sunday – most of the hundreds of thousands of fans who were based in the city or passing through for a few days, have left the country.

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