Putin blasts US over FIFA probe

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the United States of overstepping its legal authority by working with Swiss authorities in the arrests of FIFA officials in an international corruption investigation.

{mosads}“This is yet another blatant attempt [by the United States] to extend its jurisdiction to other states,” Putin said on Russian television, according to The Guardian.

“It looks very strange, the arrests are carried out on the request of the USA side,” he added.

Putin said the arrests on Wednesday in Zurich were intended to prevent Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s longtime president, from gaining a fifth term during elections Friday.

U.S. lawmakers have called on FIFA’s Congress to elect a leader other than Blatter in the hope a new president would deny Russia the opportunity to host the 2018 World Cup, as currently planned.

Swiss authorities announced a probe Wednesday into FIFA’s allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup matches, the latter to Qatar. They also arrested seven FIFA officials at a hotel in Zurich.

That came hours after the Justice Department released a 47-count indictment charging more than a dozen officials with FIFA and its affiliates for receiving bribes and kickbacks for matches since 1991.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Wednesday that the U.S. and Swiss probes further illustrated the need for Blatter to step aside and for someone else to deny Russia the 2018 World Cup.