*I didn't read the article*
I'm not sure how I feel about this. The Kremlin obviously deserves plenty of flak, but do the Russian athletes, fans, and the entire soccer infrastructure deserve the heat for the Kremlin's actions? FIFA has always made it a priority to separate government, politics and the game from each other. Our government has surely done things I'm not proud of, id be furious if our national team took the punishment for that.
The article may have covered this, but I hope they (the players) at the least allow the matches to be played in a neutral site, perhaps with a method of directing revenues to humanitarian aid.