England fans face being locked in ‘DRUNK TANKS’ by Russian police during 2018 World Cup

Inside the city’s “sobering centre”, preparations are already underway to “welcome” intoxicated supporters who down too many vodkas beside the Volga River. 

Armed police routinely sweep the streets picking up drunks and delivering them here in jail vans to detox overnight.

The drunk tank – one of only a handful today operating in Russia since the old Stalinist harsh-regime facilities were abolished after the Soviet collapse – could act as a model for taking the strain off accident and emergency units in Britain, after a call for such drying out facilities by NHS England head Simon Stevens to stop hospitals having to deal with the impact of hangovers.

Here in Nizhny Novgorod, our pictures show piles of metal bed frames already waiting to be deployed when England play Panama on 24 June in this city, which was closed to foreigners in the Cold War.

On a recent night, a succession of drunk Russians were brought here by police, some handcuffed.

Inebriated fans at the World Cup will be breath tested before their passports and money are taken from them and held in a safe locker. 

Then they will be ordered to lie on the beds in dormitories and dry out – with the air specially filtered to expunge the alcohol fumes . 

Incapacitated male and female supporters can refuse to come here – but they will then be likely forced into grim police cells, and risking criminal prosecution or a fine.

“We will welcome England fans,” said Mikhail Bulukov, 51, director of Nadezhda Centre, formerly a no-nonsense Lieutenant-Colonel in the Russian army who served in the war in Chechnya.

“By the World Cup, we will have hand-held translators. 

“And hopefully Fifa will give us English-speaking volunteers to communicate with drunk fans.

“We are ready. We have 16 beds and if needed we can double the number.”

In Soviet times, such “sobering houses” were notoriously strict with the accent on punishment. 

As our historic pictures show, at the time drunks were routinely stripped and often tethered to beds. 

Reports were sent to employers aimed at humiliating the culprits.

“Our regime is different,” insisted the director, even though Communist-era propaganda pictures on the evils of alcohol line the walls of his spartan but friendly centre. 

Inebriated people brought here are referred to politely as ‘clients’, and they are treated firmly but with respect by staff.

“The aim is to ensure our clients do not harm themselves or anyone else out on the streets. 

“They stay with us until they are sober.” 

The aim is to take pressure off the police and hospitals, which is also becoming an acute problem in Britain. 

But in Nizhny Novgorod, those genuinely needing medical care will be rushed to hospital, just as the violent will be locked in police cells. 

In the drunk tank, beefy security guards monitor the tipsy inmates from CCTV.

One said: “Any violence or misbehaviour and we press a red button.

“This summons the police who take them off to the cells.”

The director said: “We are around two miles from the stadium.”

He joked: “To England fans who end up here, we will offer them our best Russian hospitality.

“Drunks should bear in mind that we offer a higher level of comfort than in police cells.”

One dorm in the sobering facility, run by the city government, is ready to take women.

When drunks check-in, breath tests are administered by female officer Alexandra Ledneva, 50, who shows the reading to her “client”. 

One unsteady man took the test. 

She whispered: “He is dead drunk.”

Another, in his 30s, scratched a policeman in a scuffle after his handcuffs were unlocked. 

“You’re going to the police cells,” said the officer brusquely. 

Alexey, 38, so drunk he could barely stand, was given a bed on which to sober-up.

After the end of Soviet rule, sobering centres were axed, but recently they have started to re-open.

There are calls for them to return in time for the World Cup in all venue cities, but no decision has been made yet.

Evgeny Bryun – alcohol and drug addiction tsar to Vladimir Putin’s government – is campaigning for a return of Soviet-era facilities in major cities.

“I believe is is optimal to actually reestablish sobering houses within the Interior Ministry involving obligatory participation of healthcare professionals,” he said.

Interior Ministry involvement means they would be run by police. 

“Why is it necessary?

“People who abuse alcohol or drugs, they end up in sobering houses, and here we can start motivational work and decreasing demand for alcohol and drugs. 

“It would be a very good collaboration of two ministries.”

In the pioneering Nizhny Novgorod sobering centre, some 19,959 drunk visitors have been brought here in the two years since it was opened. 

Of these, 1135 were women. Most are between the ages of 30 and 50.