The Russian Football Union insists it is making great strides in eradicating racism but a recent report reveals just how widespread the problem is in a country that is hosting the World Cup in three years time

“Russians forward! F**k the Caucasus,” Lokomotiv fans began to chant at a qualifying match on 23 August 2012 between the Dutch club AZ Alkmaar and Anzhi Makhachkala, a team from Russia’s mostly Muslim Caucasus region that were renting the Lokomotiv stadium in Moscow.

Police detained some 80 fans and Anzhi went on to win the game. But after their victory groups of hooligans attacked Anzhi fans in the metro station Chistye Prudy, splattering the platform in blood. A Russian nationalist organisation later said on social media that 70 Lokomotiv fans had taken part in the assault using traumatic pistols (handguns that fire rubber bullets).

As Russia gears up to host the 2018 World Cup, concerns have been raised about the spiralling costs for the tournament and alleged corruption during the Fifa bidding process. Last week Alexander Khinshtein, of the ruling United Russia Party, announced legislative amendments that would allow inmates to perform forced labour outside their prison colonies, a move he said could help save money on World Cup construction.

But racist incidents like those at the Anzhi-AZ match, which came a day after a group of 50 young people attacked Anzhi fans in St Petersburg on their way to watch a game, have added worries about the reception non-white players and even supporters could receive in Russia.

A recent report by the Fare network and the Moscow-based Sova Centre for information and analysis has documented 99 racist and far-right displays and 21 racially motivated attacks by Russian football fans during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

Among the offences were racial chants, banners featuring celtic crosses and other far-right and neo-Nazi symbols, graffiti with messages such as “Anzhi on the knife” and assaults on anti-fascists and people from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Supporter groups have also sold clothing with far-right symbols and organised campaigns to help imprisoned neo-Nazis.

“The likelihood of a racist incident [during World Cup 2018] is very high. It’s not just that it might happen but that it happens very often,” said the Sova Centre director, Alexander Verkhovsky, at a panel of Russian and foreign football observers last month to discuss discrimination in Russian football.

Racism in the Russian stands has already drawn the ire of international and Russian authorities in recent months. Manchester City and CSKA Moscow played a Champions League match in October behind closed doors in Moscow as Uefa punished the Russian club for its fans’ racist chants toward the City midfielder Yaya Touré and others.

In December the Russian Football Union fined Spartak Moscow $1,300 (£855) after their fans made monkey sounds at Guélor Kanga, a native of Gabon who plays for FC Rostov. Touré has said black players could boycott the World Cup 2018 if racist chanting is not reduced.

“The Russian Football Union is making all the efforts to eradicate these things,” Alexei Sorokin, the head of the 2018 World Cup Committee, said in October. “This [racism] is not a threat that is unique to Russia.”

But that same month, the sports minister Vitaly Mutko said he did not “really see any problems” with the situation faced by dark-skinned players in Russia, raising worries that the authorities are taking the issue too lightly.

“I would like to see the statistics for other countries, the UK or United States, how much racism is in the stadiums there. I don’t think it’s less,” Igor Ananskikh, the chairman of the Russian parliament’s sports committee, said when asked by the Guardian about the Sova-Fare report. He argued that a law on fan behaviour, which came into effect last year, has reduced disruptions in the stands. “I often visit football matches and I don’t see that much racism.”

“We acknowledge the action that has been taken by both the Russian state and football bodies but neither can be said to have been effective in tackling the scale and seriousness of the issues,” the report by Fare and the Sova Centre said. “The approach has thus far focused on select policing operations and inconsistent football disciplinary measures.”

The chaotic debate at the discussion in Moscow at the end of May seemed to illustrate the difficulty in acknowledging the problem. A panel participant Yury Dud, editor of the major site Sports.ru, argued that discrimination in Russian football has been “a bit exaggerated” by the media.

“I don’t think this is a story about racism; I think it’s a story about government policy,” he said, arguing that selective punishment under the law is the main cause of racial tensions. “I don’t see a big problem of racism here.”

Robert Ustian, founder of the fan group CSKA Against Racism, said the problem of discrimination has not been covered enough by Russian media but argued it “needs to be dealt with internally”.

But activists in the audience presented a bleak picture of widespread racism, echoing that detailed in the report. Bakhrom Ismailov of Russia Without Racism recounted instances of discrimination against immigrants, such as locals frequently calling the police when Central Asian labourers gather for pick-up football games.

According to Penny Grenfell of the MPC Social Services charity, two-thirds of the African immigrants the organisation has worked with in Moscow reported being attacked at least once during 2014 in a December survey. She said they advise their clients not to go out on days when there are football matches.

“As long as there are such prejudices in society you won’t get a different picture in the stands,” Ismailov said.

The report called on the government, the Russian Football Union and the local Fifa World Cup organising committee to develop action plans for dealing with discrimination in football, cracking down on far-right fan groups and promoting tolerance in host cities. During the discussion David Goldblatt, a sports commentator for the Guardian and others, argued that the UK’s experience dealing with its own discrimination problems had shown the need for a three-pronged approach: condemnation of racism from official football organisations, the growth of anti-discrimination fan organisations and the prosecution of high-profile violations by fans.

The report warned that the “opportunity to bring about long-term change may have passed”. But the first steps in fighting the problem are being taken by organisations like CSKA Against Racism and others.

In May three players from CSKA Moscow, who finished second in the Russian Premier League and will now play in the Champions League next season, released a video against racism before their final match against Kazan’s Rubin.

Previously players from Amkar, Torpedo and Mordovia filmed similar appeals as part of a campaign organised by the Directorate of Sports and Social Programmes, an NGO partnered with the Russian Football Union and Fare.

Federico Addiechi, the head of corporate and social responsibility for Fifa, told the Guardian that “there’s a discrimination problem in every country, and Russia’s no exception”. This week Fare are discussing discrimination at a meeting with the Russian Football Union, sports ministry, Fifa and Uefa in Moscow. Speaking to reporters outside the closed event, Mutko said the Sochi Olympics had shown that Russia could hold international sporting events without discrimination problems. He said his government was taking into account advice from Fifa, Uefa and the United Nations while also developing its own measures to fight racism.

“Everything will be conscientious, there will be a friendly atmosphere,” he said. “All athletes and spectators will be absolutely safe in Russia, and we won’t allow any forms of discrimination.”

Jump-starting the dialogue about racism will be critical, according to Manuel Veth, a graduate student at Kings College who studies football in the former Soviet Union and runs the blog Futbolgrad.com. “Before Sova and Fare put this report together everyone was saying it wasn’t happening,” he said after the discussion. “It’s important that a Russian institution helped put this together. Something needs to be done.”

155 racist and far-right incidents in Russian football during the 2012-13 and 13-14 seasons*

Racist and far-right banners and other displays inside stadium 74

Racist and far-right chants 6

Racist and far-right banners and graffiti and banners outside stadium 12

Racist and far-right manifestos, statements 3

Other racist activities 25

Racially motivated attacks 21

Rallies, marches 2

Anti-police campaigns 1

Campaigns to help imprisoned Neo-Nazis 11

*According to a study by the FARE network and the SOVA Center. The list of incidents is not exhaustive and was prepared on the basis of publicly available information. FARE and SOVA believe the figures are indicative of an even wider problem.