French blogger Monique Gimenez shared her opinion on the words of British Minister Boris Johnson, who compared the upcoming World Cup 2018 with the 1936 Olympics, organized under the Nazi regime:
I am shocked with the terms used by Boris Johnson, who dares to draw a parallel between the Berlin Olympics of 1936 and the World Cup in Russia from June 14 to July 15, 2018. Boris Johnson forgets the reasons that led Hitler to power, it would be nice to remind him to recall them.
Who signed the Versailles Treaty, which is the main reason for his coming to power and, consequently, unleashing the Second World War? Recall that Hitler was funded by major German industrial groups and Henry Ford, England and France did not pay attention when he annexed Austria and occupied Czechoslovakia.
It would be nice to refresh his memory. This attempt to insult Russia, which contributed most to the victory over Nazism, experienced terrible sacrifices, the death of 27 million civilians and soldiers, do not forget, no other country has brought such a sacrifice.
This way of comparing Putin with Hitler is unacceptable. I did not hear that one of the Western leaders condemned him for this, no one said a word. I find it monstrous, pathetic.
This World Cup is a great success for Russia and this will be the biggest victory, although the West wants the organization of the tournament to be at a low level. I hope with all my heart that this great sport and festive event is a wonderful moment, allowing the participating teams to meet and offer us a great show. I have great confidence in Russia, it has always been at the head of major events as an organizer, such as the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, which had a remarkable success, as well as the Confederations Cup that it organized in 2017, which was a great success on all levels, and became a prelude to the World Cup.
I can not help mentioning the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980, an excellent organization, although political unforeseen circumstances provoked a boycott of a number of countries. I regret that politics infects sports with gangrene. We all saw the problems of Russian athletes who were allowed to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics and the Paralympic Games with huge difficulties: a neutral flag, without their flag and anthem.
If we have a minimum of imagination, we will assume that we have to look for a political goal behind the doping case: isolating Russia at the sports level, but once again it did not work.