ST. PETERSBURG, May 24. /TASS/. The Federal Customs Service of Russia confiscated within a year and a half about 270,000 counterfeit products bearing the official logo of the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Vladimir Bulavin, the head of the service, said on Thursday.

"We have confiscated in 2017 about 10 million counterfeit products, which included about 250,000 various counterfeit products bearing the logo of the upcoming world football championship," Bulavin said in an interview with Rossiya-24 television channel as he spoke on the sidelines of the 2018 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

"This year we have registered about 20,000 cases (of counterfeit 2018 World Cup products)," the head of the Russian Customs Service added.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off in 21 days with the opening match in the Russian capital of Moscow.

Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, running between May 24 and 26, is one of the world’s key economic discussion platforms, held under the auspices of the Russian president. Traditionally, it assembles foreign chiefs of state and government, key public figures, heads of international organizations and major companies, leading world experts, analysts and media.

The events of the forum have been banded together under the motto of "creating an economy of trust". TASS news agency is the general information partner and the forum’s official photohost agency. The news service is also the operator of SPIEF’s presentation zone, supported by the EY consulting company and the Foreign Investment Advisory Council.