MOSCOW — A few English men surveyed the scene in Moscow’s World Cup fan zone, a pedestrian street lined with bars. In the deepening twilight on a recent evening, the streetlights twinkled on. Russian women turned up, wanting to practice English. In the balmy air, small droplets of condensation formed on glasses of chilled beer.

How were they enjoying themselves?

“This has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” said Andrew Barnett, an electricity utility employee from Birmingham. “To be fair, it’s been really positive.”

Outside the country, the Russian government has been on the defensive lately. Just on Friday, the special prosecutor in the United States detailed how Russian spies hacked the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign during the 2016 presidential election. In Britain, authorities are blaming Moscow for additional poisonings from the nerve agent that earlier sickened a former Russian spy and his daughter.

But as they mount a public defense, Russian authorities and state media have discovered an unlikely ally: English soccer fans, who watched their team make a surprising run deep into the tournament, falling in the semifinal to Croatia.