Russian official says World Cup to cost $20B

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Moscow • Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says the costs for the 2018 World Cup will be more than $20 billion, about double the amount Russia originally estimated it would spend.

Medvedev told his Cabinet on Thursday that $13 billion of the cost would come from the federal budget.

When Russia won the bid for the World Cup in 2010, Vladimir Putin projected the costs at about $10 billion.

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, one of the Russian president's pet projects, has seen huge cost overruns. The estimates have increased nearly fourfold to $51 billion.