As soon as Russia was awarded the World Cup in December 2010, questions were raised about the country’s attitudes towards racism.

These were accompanied by various Russian retorts stating that there was no racism in Russian football.

These rather ludicrous responses were rightly criticised by many because, let’s be honest, Russian football has a problem with racism.

These problems were exacerbated last week when a post appeared on the official Twitter feed of the FC Spartak Moscow account showing Brazilian trio Fernando, Luiz Adriano and Pedro Rocha training in the blazing hot sun during their mid-winter break training camp in Abu Dhabi.

In the video, Spartak defender Georgi Dzhikiya, a Russian player of Georgian descent, can be heard saying "See how chocolates melt in the sun" which was also the caption for the tweet.

Unsurprisingly, there was uproar as many were quick to condemn the club for its actions.

This once again led to questions about the choice of Russia as the host of the FIFA World Cup this summer.

Spartak responded to the criticism by deleting the original tweet before posting a video of Fernando saying, "There is no racism at Spartak, we are one united family."

They then followed it up with a video of the Brazilian trio laughing and joking around with Dzhikiya.

A formal apology from the club did not appear on the club's official website or Twitter feed and instead was released via Russia's official state news agency TASS.

Hardly sufficient.

They almost seemed to excuse the atrocious behaviour as banter.

Perhaps it was interpreted as banter, and the trio did not mind.

In fact, Rocha has recently come out in the press and said there is no racism at the club whilst team mate Quincy Promes, a black player widely regarded as the best player in the Russian Premier League, also said that there had been an overreaction to the tweet and claimed he preferred to be called "chocolate" rather than a "monkey".

The Spartak players and club can come out and play down the tweet all they like, however, a professional football club, and a very successful one at that, should not be posting videos which could cause offence on such a delicate topic.

Why they thought it was appropriate, I do not know.

There are some quarters that somewhat excuse the behaviour of Dzhikiya, saying that he is just a young lad who made a massive error in judgement.

Perhaps he is naive, but ignorance is not an excuse.

He surely knew the consequence of his actions.

A lot of the blame for this falls at the feet of Spartak Moscow press officer Leonid Trakhtenberg.

Trakhtenberg claims to be the first press officer in Russian sport and should know far better than to allow this content into the public domain.

Dzhikiya may have had control of the account for the day, but all posts were still ratified by Trakhtenberg.

Will he be sacked for allowing this to happen?

I doubt it.

Unfortunately, if you thought Spartak’s reaction was poor, there was worse to come…

Following the incident, English-language Russian media outlet Sputnik published an article titled "Why UK Media Go Bonkers Over Spartak Moscow 'Racism', and What They Don't Show”.

The article attempted to severely criticise the British press in their coverage of the incident, claiming that they were "triggered" and were "alleging Spartak Moscow was marred by some kind of shocking racism scandal".

Furthermore, Russian sports media outlet Sport Express tried to retort to the criticism with an article titled "Racism in Russia? England, look at yourself!"

That title is correct in one sense.

England does arguably still have a problem with racism, however, it does not make Spartak’s behaviour okay.

This type of reporting has been systematic of a lot of Russian press coverage of racism in recent times and is not helped by statements made by influential people such as Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova who, as reported by TASS, said: "We learned that reporters from the United Kingdom - not just one media outlet, but a number of them - received, in the truest sense of the word, a state order to launch a smear campaign for holding the World Cup in Russia."

This is clearly nonsense.

Instead of looking critically at the issue, there is an attempt to sweep it under the carpet and push back against the negativity.

Whilst this reaction is far from ideal, it is fair to say that they have been goaded by Western society in the run-up to the World Cup.

There is a perception among some Russians that the West is categorically against the idea of them hosting this summer’s World Cup following what they perceive as biased, negative reporting on the tournament.

They believe that, instead of analysing the pros and cons of the tournament being held in their country, they are being attacked on a personal level with some even suggesting it is bitterness because England lost the 2018 bid to Russia.

An example of this is the reaction to the BBC documentary "Russia’s Hooligan Army", which caused an uproar in Russia last year.

A large number of Russians described the documentary as "sensationalist" and argued that it failed to dissect the issues at the heart of Russian football, and, instead, used sweeping generalisations about the behaviour of Russian football fans in an attempt to delegitimise the upcoming World Cup by saying there would be a "festival of violence".

In all fairness, this reaction was not limited to Russia with many Western audiences also sceptical about the message behind, and purpose of, the documentary.

Such documentaries, which seemingly look to divide opinion and cause controversy, will not help in the battle against the problems in Russian football.

There can be no doubt that such programmes influence public opinion, which leads to unhelpful and idiotic comments on social media such as "Russians are racist".

It is worth pointing out here that it is impossible to generalise a country containing over 160 different ethnic groups as "racist".

No wonder Russians react and get on the defensive when they are the subject of such ridiculous statements.

So, how do we eradicate racism from Russian football?

Firstly, the mudslinging has to stop.

The reality is that the vast majority of Russian football fans attend games to support their team and have a good time, rather than abuse opposition fans or players, and are appalled by the disgraceful behaviour displayed by certain sections of football fanbases in the country.

Of course, vile incidents do take place, as they do in every country, but there is far more to the Russian game than that.

Questions are often asked, rightly, of the hierarchy in Russian football and what they are doing to tackle the appalling behaviour by some football fans in their country.

The Russian Football Union have had the chance to fight racism and hooliganism for the last two decades and have done almost nothing.

They have set up their anti-racism taskforce, headed by former Russian international Alexei Smertin, but that is about as far as it goes.

Relying on them is a hopeless cause.

The real fight against racism in Russian football is coming from the fans, who are starting to act against unacceptable behaviour at matches.

One example is fans group "CSKA Fans Against Racism", part of the Football Supporters Europe organisation.

They are spreading an important message of inclusion and anti-discrimination but, unfortunately, they must battle through the onslaught of defamation to get their point across.

Regrettably, their excellent work does not quite have the same headline-grabbing pull of "festival of violence".

More promotion of causes like this, as opposed to the blame culture and mudslinging we are currently seeing, would undoubtedly draw people together and solve these problems more quickly.

The "no racism in Russian football" and "Russian football is racist" arguments would both soon realise that they are wrong.

Unfortunately, this looks rather unlikely in the current circumstances and we can look forward to more nonsense in the build-up before the FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 14.