Billionaire bets on boys from Brazil to win peace in Dagestan

The floodlights are on, the stadium is packed, and
the familiar stocky figure of Brazilian World Cup winner Roberto Carlos
is galloping down the left wing. The strange thing about this scene is
where it takes place – in Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan. A chunk of
mountainous land on the southern fringes of Russia, looking out on the
Caspian Sea, in recent years Dagestan has been known mainly for its
poverty and violence. The rumbling Islamic insurgency claims victims
almost daily among policemen and government officials.

This year, however, a billionaire formerly from
the region announced an investment plan to help tackle poverty and
instability in the republic. The centrepiece of the plan is football.
Suleiman Kerimov, a secretive businessmen with investments across many
sectors, is the 118th richest man in the world according to Forbes
magazine, with a fortune of $7.8bn (£4.8bn). His company last month
promised to invest more than £900m in sports facilities and
infrastructure projects in Dagestan, and the most visible investment to
date is Makhachkala’s football club, Anzhi.

Mr
Kerimov took over Anzhi in January, promising major investment. The
football world was stunned as Roberto Carlos, one of the most famous
players in the world, signed up for the team; three more Brazilians and
other big-name international players were also signed.

The tiny crowds at home games became full houses,
with a scramble for tickets. A new 40,000-seat stadium is planned to be
completed within four years, and will include a top training facility,
restaurants, hotels and spas, says club spokesman Alexander Udaltsov.
The goal is to qualify for Europe’s top competition, the Champions
League, within five years, and the team is already cementing a place in
the Russian Premier League’s top six.

But
there’s another, even more ambitious goal, which is to use football to
bring some hope and happiness to Dagestan. “Of course, there is not a
lot of fun to be had in Makhachkala,” admits Mr Udaltsov. “Mr Kerimov is
very interested in giving people here something to be proud of.”

Match
tickets can be bought for as little as £2, and the atmosphere on Sunday
as Anzhi took on Zenit St Petersburg, one of Russia’s top sides and the
2008 UEFA Cup Winners, was electric. The stadium was full, and children
shimmied up walls to try to glimpse inside the ground, as hundreds of
police patrolled the cordons outside to ensure there were no security
incidents. Inside the stadium, a band of drummers banged out the
traditional lezginka dance, and the stadium joined in with chants of
“Dagestan! Dagestan!” Zenit scored a late winner, condemning Anzhi to
only their second defeat of the season, but the fans still left happy.

“The
players we used to have were rubbish, and they didn’t try hard,” said
Ali, a 19-year-old who claims to have seen every home game for the past
three years. “Now we’ve got Roberto Carlos! I still can’t believe it?”

For
now, the team is based in Makhachkala for only a couple of days before
each home match. They spend the rest of the time at their main training
base just outside Moscow. The club denies this is for security reasons,
instead pointing to the lack of infrastructure in Dagestan. When the new
stadium is built, the team will move there full-time, says Mr Udaltsov.

Carlos
himself, in an interview with The Independent before the game, laughed
with incredulity at the thought that Dagestan might be a dangerous place
for him to live. “I trust Suleiman Kerimov, and he told me it’s a calm
and safe region, and with the help of football it can become even
better,” he said, as the gentle waves of the Caspian Sea lapped the
sandy beach that adjoins the Anzhi compound. “The violence that is
written about in some places on the internet is all in the past, and has
nothing to do with how things are here now.”

But
while the violence in Dagestan tends to be carefully targeted against
government officials and the police, the idea that it is a “calm and
safe” region where violence is a distant memory is absurd. Two days
before the interview, a top-ranking official in the FSB security
services was attacked in a drive-by shooting. He was hospitalised in a
critical condition, and two of his bodyguards killed.

The
evening of the interview, a “special operation” took place an hour’s
drive south of the city. Two suspected terrorists were killed; one of
their wives was allegedly shot dead while escaping. The next day, all
that was visible was a circle of dry blood in the mud outside the house,
at the point where she had been shot.

The
local chief of police arrived, and was confronted by the mother and
sister of the young girl. “She was running away, and you killed her, you
killed my little sister!” yelled one of the women at the policeman,
tears streaming down her face. “You’re all corrupt liars! May Allah
strike you down and may the same misfortune befall your children too!”
The policeman’s plain-clothed guards fingered their weapons nervously.

The
cycle of violence in Dagestan continues. Yesterday, the head press
secretary of the republic’s president, Magomedsalam Magomedov, was shot
dead as he got into his car.

The authorities
have said many times that the best way to stop young people from joining
the insurgents is to give them economic opportunities and hope. Sport
and a “healthy lifestyle” are repeated as mantras of how to keep young
people out of trouble, and the hope is that the “Anzhi phenomenon” will
promote social cohesion and pride in the area.

One
of Mr Kerimov’s stated goals is that at least one local Anzhi player
should make the Russia squad for the 2018 World Cup, which will be held
in Russia. Seven youth academies will be set up in the next five years
in different cities across Dagestan to promote young talent, says Mr
Udaltsov.

Not everyone is impressed – a story in
the local newspaper, Chernovik, in April pointed out that while Carlos
was on a reported salary of about £4m a year, a local schoolteacher in
Dagestan earns between £2,000 and £2,500. But for those inside the
stadium, it is a price worth paying. “Russians, they say there’s nothing
here except sheep and terrorists,” said 24-year-old Gadzhi, proudly
waving a flag on the terrace and cheering his side on. “Well, they’re
wrong. We have Anzhi!”