It is barely afternoon, but the carnival has already arrived on Moscow’s Nikolskaya Street.

At every skip along the central drag – the World Cup’s unofficial fan HQ – foreign visitors are contorting their materials and limbs energetically. Barechested Colombians dance salsa. Bicepped Brazilians, still giddy at the early exit of rivals Argentina, dance forro with anyone willing. Boozed-up Englishmen are gyrating around plastic pint glasses.

One woman of about 25, with a Russian flag painted onto her face, is filming the otherworldly events on a camera phone. “Tanya, it’s inc-red-i-ble,” she says to her friend. “They’re so fluid. So sensual.”

Thirty seconds of staring later, the woman is noticed by one of the Brazilians. He comes over, smiles for a selfie, before departing.

For the two weeks of the World Cup, Russian cities have been awash with men and women from the competing 32 nations and beyond. And if the feedback on Nikolskaya Street and social media is anything to go, the locals seem to like what they have seen. Many of them have posted video stories of early summer romances with foreigners.

According to Daria, a blonde woman of 23 – she declined to give her surname – the foreign men are like day to the local night: “They are more beautiful and look after themselves better. It’s enough that the men don’t smell of sweat, and that they know what aftershave is.”

It may not be a sexual revolution, says Maria Arzamasova, author of the country’s most popular sex blog, Masha, come on! But it has raised the “iron curtain of Russian sexuality” a little, she adds.

Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Show all 12 1 /12 Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup The World Cup alters the look of things. Tourists peer through murder-holes in the remains of the city’s nineteenth-century fortresses, while legends of the game stand high above them and stare back out at the city. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Football provides a place to hide. It also semi-conceals everyday life. Even Kvass, the traditional Russian drink, is being dressed up as a football beverage. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Victory Square, usually a slow moving, relaxed space for socialising, is transformed into a desperate struggle for World Cup paraphernalia as Moroccan fans hand out free football shirts. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup The central marker of the World Cup in Kaliningrad is an abandoned Soviet building project – the House of Soviets. Once planned to be a socialist administration hub, the Brutalist structure now looms large as a flag bearer of Fifa’s global commercial enterprise. Photos Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup At other times, football’s presence in the lives of the city’s inhabitants is less immediate, more peripheral, and seen only in the distance. The Arena Baltika, host to England’s World Cup match against Belgium, sits on the horizon as urban fisherman check out their catch. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Some people work to make the World Cup a time of leisure for others. Somebody’s got to clean the stairway to beef and beer. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Authority and football go hand-in-hand, seen everywhere together, joined by an unbreakable bond. Even when two policemen stop for a smoke, they are framed by the kick of a ball. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup To the bodies of women, it seems, pinned-up outside a strip club, must now be added a football. Sex sells, but during the World Cup its lure is stronger if it becomes part of the game. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Reflections of buildings and people are dotted with footballs, obscuring the view of the city and shifting perspective of passer-by. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup I wondered how long the traces of the World Cup would last here, how long its visual imagery would take to fade away. Perhaps it never will, I thought, but would instead remain forever, like hieroglyphics from a time when Kaliningrad was a football city. Richard Morgan/The Independent Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup Life on the Streets during the Russia World Cup

“They have a new category of men to compare to,” she says. “Beautiful men who are happy to have sex with condoms, who act gallantly without accusing them of being slutty. It’s a whole new universe.”

The suggestion that Russian men might not be up to the competition has been met with a furious response by patriotic media.

One leader article in Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia’s most popular tabloid, was titled “Generation of whores”. Meanwhile, a programme on Tsargrad, the ultranationalist Orthodox Christian TV channel, blamed “liberal media” for “promoting the most extreme forms of feminism”. Their website ran a long article, citing a dozen foreign women who praised the “authenticity” of the Russian male.

And the men themselves are angry. Ivan, a 24-year-old fitness trainer, told The Independent about local women’s interactions with foreigners: “They’ll swim with the dolphins for a bit, but then the dolphins will swim away, and they’ll come crying back to us.”

Some men have taken to writing in an “ironic” group set up on the leading Russian social network. The patriarchal views there are unmistakable. Its users pour scorn on the “whores” and “prostitutes” who are “ruining the country’s gene pool” and “pouring shame on the country” – Usually written with poor grammar.

Official discourse has not been far behind. Before the start of the World Cup, Tamara Pletnyova, the deputy chairman of a parliamentary committee, urged Russian women not to have sex with foreigners. Mixed-race children were a bad thing, she said: “Russians should raise Russian children.”

The comment was reminiscent of instructions given out before the 1980 Olympics about who Soviet women should and should not go out with – Westerners were no-go, but those from socialist countries were OK.

Pletnyova’s views probably did not represent the views of the authorities, says Marianna Murayeva, a sociologist at the Higher School of Economics. But they did speak to “neo-Soviet thinking” that is widespread in government.

Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Show all 28 1 /28 Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A boy hangs from a goalpost in St. Petersburg Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Self-made goalposts stand on a soccer pitch in Verkhnyaya Biryusa village, located in the Taiga area near the Russian Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A boy rides a bicycle near a goalpost in Yevpatoria, Crimea Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Hay fills a goalpost during the traditional Cossack games outside the village of Arkhonskaya in the Republic of North Ossetia, Alania Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A car is seen through a goalpost while driving along a road in the Siberian village of Tyulkovo Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Children play at a goalpost during the traditional Cossack games outside the village of Arkhonskaya in the Republic of North Ossetia, Alania Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands in the village of Pribrezhnoye, Crimea Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia People and dogs walk near a goalpost on the Ostrov Otdykha (the Island of Rest), located in the middle of the Yenisei River Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A boy rides a gyro-scooter near a goalpost on a football pitch in the Siberian town of Divnogorsk Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Cossacks sit on a bench next to a goalpost covered with a screen during the traditional Cossack games outside the village of Arkhonskaya in the Republic of North Ossetia Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands in front of an Orthodox church in the Siberian village of Tyulkovo Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Goalposts lay on the ground as people gather at a flooded beach on the bank of the Volga River in Samara Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands in Yevpatoria Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A man sits on a goalpost in the settlement of Novo-Schedrinskaya, Chechnya Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A participant is seen through a goalpost during an amateur football tournament at the Zenit Arena, a stadium made from straw, in Stravropol Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost in a yard of a Stalin-era high-rise building in Moscow Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Goats walk near a goalpost in the village of Pervomayskoye, Crimea Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands at a tourist centre on the bank of the Belyo Lake in the Republic of Khakassia, Siberia Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands in the town of Dolgoprudny in the Moscow region Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A man runs near goalposts on a football pitch in a settlement in Stavropol region Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A dog stands near a goalpost in Ryazantsevo settlement in Yaroslavl region Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia Children play with a puppy near a goalpost on a football pitch in the Siberian settlement of Novosyolovo Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands in the village of Lesnovka, Saksky district, Crimea Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands in the village of Zhuravli, Crimea Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A man rides a horse near a goalpost in the village of Bolshaya Dzhalga in Stavropol region Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands in Sevastopol, Crimea Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A cadet holds a model of a sword in front of a goalpost as he trains at the stadium of the General Yermolov Cadet School in Stavropol Reuters Away from the World Cup: the secret lives of goalposts in Russia A goalpost stands in the village of Glinka, Saksky region, Crimea Reuters

Murayeva describes the state’s approach as a “male discourse of protectionism” which sees Russian women as “resources” that need be defended. “It is an attempt to control women’s bodies, however absurd that is in the present age. And it is always young women, by the way. No one is bothered if you are above 35 – then you are free as far as the state is concerned.”

Russians have a complicated relationship with sex and sexuality in general. In many of the larger cities, and among educated classes, a liberal attitude prevails. Abortion and casual relationships, if not quite promoted, are certainly not frowned upon.

But while Russia’s conservative forces have not quite yet managed to enter the bedroom, they have made inroads elsewhere. Many “immoral” websites are now banned, for example.

Women in traditional Russian clothing ahead the training session at the Spartak Zelenogorsk Stadium, Repino (PA)

In smaller towns and cities, meanwhile, “traditional values” – read a patriarchal agenda – dominate the offline world too.

The arrival of visibly different values may make a difference, says Arzamasova. “Women can now see that it’s OK to want love, sex, romance, and the company of beautiful men who do not denigrate them,” she explains.