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A legal bid to stop Vladimir Putin’s Russia hosting the World Cup this summer is being launched by activists.

Campaigners warn it could be dangerous for fans travelling to the tournament as tensions mount in the wake of the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

And they fear the increasingly isolated president could exploit the event as part of his propaganda war against the West.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry today warned Russia was becoming a “rogue state”.

(Image: AFP) (Image: Daily Mirror)

And Theresa May called Donald Trump to praise the President’s “very strong response” to the Novichok nerve agent assault in booting out 60 Kremlin spies.

Russia is coming under growing pressure over hosting the football spectacle, which kicks off on June 14.

Opponents fear Putin will exploit the showpiece in the same way Hitler used the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Campaigners have launched a crowd funding appeal on GoFundMe so they can instruct top barristers, including a QC from Matrix Chambers, to try and stop the tournament taking place in Russia.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

They plan to draw-up a legal dossier on why, under current laws and Fifa and Uefa rules, Russia is no longer fit to be a host nation of the world’s biggest sporting event.

It will highlight the fact that if anything goes wrong, it was avoidable - and that given the scale of illegal Kremlin action, something should have been done earlier.

Sashy Nathan of campaign group 89up said: “The World Cup is the stage for the likes of Ronaldo, Salah and Messi’s sublime skill - why are we allowing it be used to make Putin look successful?

“When Sepp Blatter awarded the World Cup to Russia back in December 2010, there were concerns that Vladimir Putin would use the sporting tournament to whitewash Kremlin conduct.

“In the next seven years, Putin has broken a series of international laws including potential war crimes in Syria, occupying Crimea and invading Ukraine, shooting down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 and illegally discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in Russia, amongst many other issues, including the recent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on British soil.”

(Image: TASS)

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, who has called for teams to boycott the tournament, backed the legal bid.

He said: “We cannot allow Mr Putin to use the World Cup as a smokescreen for his crimes and a way of bolstering his regime.

“To say that sport and politics don’t mix is nonsense. That view allows sponsors, federations and us as fans to shake off our moral responsibilities.

“The fact is that sport does have the power to change politics – from Jessie Owens at the 1936 Olympics to the boycotts of apartheid South Africa – and we should be using that power now.”

(Image: Daily Mirror)

He added: “As much as expulsions, visa bans, sanctions and asset freezes will hurt President Putin and his entourage, denying him the prestige of the World Cup will do far more to undermine the regime.

“Mr Putin’s Russia isn’t fit to host one of the greatest global sporting events on the planet.

“That is why we must strip Russia of the World Cup and have it relocated to another country or countries in 2019, right after the Women’s World Cup.”

Earlier, Labour frontbencher Ms Thornberry told the Chatham House think tank that “Russia under Putin” was “seeming to retreat back into being some sort of a rogue state - whether it’s here with the attack in Salisbury or their aiding and abetting of war crimes in Syria”.