MOSCOW — A leaked recording of a meeting of Russia’s top soccer executives appears to show them panicked at the possibility that their clubs might be ejected from major European competitions and Russia might be stripped of the 2018 World Cup as they discuss a vote to admit three clubs from Crimea into the Russian league.

In the recording, the executives, who control Russia’s top clubs, recoil from taking a step that might invite more Western sanctions or displease Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin. On the tape, they resolve to seek guidance from Putin, in apparent violation of strict FIFA rules that national soccer associations be free from political influence.

An abridged transcript of the recording was published Monday by the Russian investigative magazine Novaya Gazeta. The recording, which has not been released, could not be independently verified by The New York Times. But one of the participants, in an interview with a Moscow radio station, appeared to confirm that the meeting had taken place. Telephone calls to the participants on Tuesday went unanswered.

The recording is remarkable for the number of wealthy men exhibiting fear at angering the Kremlin, and also as a rare insight into the absolute authority Putin wields in Russia and the psychological effect of Western sanctions on the country’s establishment. Among the participants are some of Russia’s richest men, including Suleyman Kerimov, ranked as the 72nd-richest man in the world, as well as heads of the country’s leading soccer clubs, Zenit St. Petersburg and CSKA Moscow. Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russia’s state railways and a close friend of Putin’s, was also present.