Even history enthusiasts rarely mention one event that to this day influences the fate of Europe and the world. No, it’s not FIFA’s World Cup, but the Great Northern War.

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Vladimir Putin’s speech at the opening ceremony of the World Football Championship.

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Bits of history

In this war that went on between 1700 and 1721, the Kingdom of Sweden – which had become ruler of northern Europe under the leadership of King Charles the XII^th – went head to head with a coalition formed by Denmark, Poland, and Russia; this last was still a behind-the-times divided pseudo-empire – without access to the sea and, therefore, without international access –, whose tsar was Peter the I^st Romanov (better known as “The Great”). During the first part of the confrontation, members of the anti-Swede coalition were defeated at every step, fact that made Peter understand that it was no joking matter. He put the country to work with an iron fist, using methods that today (during these prudishly democratic times) would go under the label of “sovereign democracy” or “controlled democracy”: he tortured a bit the wealthy nobles (oligarchs of those times), ended institutional anarchy, put together a new army, and built a fleet. And so, things ended his way.

Although his allies were down after fighting in order to gain him time needed to apply the above-mentioned reforms, Peter single-handedly obtained victory, taking Sweden out of the map of relevant powers. He occupied territories in the south of the Baltic Sea and Finland, which had been under Swede control up until then and on which he built Sankt Petersburg, making Russia the main geopolitical force in Northern Europe along with the world’s great powers of the time – a status it retained for centuries.

The story goes that during a lull in the war, the tsar invited the Ambassador of Sweden to lunch. After helping him to significant amounts of vodka, the tsar took him to a window through which he showed him the new Russian fleet anchored in the waters of the Baltic Sea, meaning in the waters of the “Swedish lake” to which Russia had just made its way. A Russian fleet was a surprise it and of itself. Under the influence of alcohol, it seemed to the ambassador much larger than it truly was. That’s how he described it in his report to the Swedish king – fact that legend says had a massively debilitating psychological effect on him and later influenced his political and military decisions in a negative manner.

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Russia – main player

Those watching the great celebration of world-wide football organized by Russia in the year of our Lord 2018 have surely experienced the same feeling as the ambassador of Charles the XII-th when he was invited to lunch by Peter the Great. Countless gigantic football stadiums, attracting cheerful and healthy spectators who interacted easily with visitors of all colors and from all corners of the world, in the heart of grand cities that glittered under the flashing lights of thousands of brightly-lit advertisements. That’s what everyone saw, from Panama all the way to Melbourne, from Buenos Aires to Tokyo.

Before the eyes of the King of Spain, but also of the entire world of football enthusiasts who were awed, Russia’s team – which presented pretty basic field action, but was smarter from a strategic standpoint – took out the “invincible Spanish armada” pretty much like Peter’s Russians conquered Charles’s Swedes at Poltava, forcing mass-media world-wide to print first-page news of Russia’s victory instead of the seemingly ephemeral topic regarding sanctions imposed by the Euro-Atlantic powers as a result of annexing Crimea.

Vladimir Putin with FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

President Putin gesticulated a bit on this occasion. He made one appearance, manifesting the disarming calm of the Chinese Emperor when he received the ultimatum through which the English Empire was demanding freedom of commerce with opium; and he made the most of European politicians’ weakness in order to get in the spotlight of cameras. Then he announced that he was going to watch the games on TV.

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One can almost imagine him wearing his slippers and bathrobe, holding a cup of Russian tea (let’s not forget that the word “chai” is derived from, if not in fact the very pronunciation of the word “China”) which he prefers to whiskey, savoring how the geopolitical ‘game’ was going. His facial expression says “We’re here. If you want to play with us, by all means come our way!”

Speak softly, and carry a big stick

In case you haven’t seen Vladimir Putin these days or haven’t heard his speech, watch the World Cup on TV and listen to the roar of the crowds at the stadium. That’s where we can see and hear a combination of Chancellor Gorceakov, who after the War of Crimea of 1856 said that “Russia doesn’t get offended, it gets associated with”, and the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, who insisted on having to “speak softly, and carry a big stick”. The name of this combination is Vladimir Putin.

Soon, he’ll meet Donald Trump, President of the United States, in Helsinki – a place close to Putin. There’s another Poltava in the making.

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At some point, Stalin, threatened by the Vatican’s hostile policy, asked “How many divisions does the Pope have?”. Mr. Putin will most likely ask how many football stadiums America has. And Mr. Trump will answer that, although Americans play a different kind of football, they have a lot of stadiums of all kinds, but they can’t be sure that while there some local lunatic or fanatic holding a machine-gun won’t shoot them.

“Do you want to compete in missiles or safe stadiums?”, Mr. Putin will enquire. And Mr. Trump will answer: “America first!”. Then the tsar will know that, despite the scores of any game in his football stadiums, he has already won the Championship of the World.