He sees the global West, led by the US, Britain, and Nato, as guilty of unprovoked aggression against Russia. He supports the separatist movement in east Ukraine, but repeats the Kremlin’s (long debunked) line that there is “no proof” of Russian involvement in the war there.

And he harbours a near-religious veneration for the Second World War as the foundation of a sense of Russian exceptionalism – the nearest thing contemporary Russia has to an official state ideology.

A sign of just how far the convergence of hawkish public ideology with football terrace nationalism came after the now infamous assault on England fans in Marseille Old Port and Velodrome stadium in June.

The discipline, brutality, and obvious preparation of those attacks provoked outrage in Britain, but barely disguised glee amongst some Russian officials in Moscow.

Mr Khuslyutdinov says this was pure political opportunism, rather than evidence of collusion between hooligans and the state.

“They were just saying what the broad electorate wanted to hear. With the exception of Vladimir Putin’s personal rating, these officials have basically no popularity. So allegedly supporting us is a way of showing they are in tune with the public mood,” he said.

“Besides, the day before that Russian and English fans were on the same side fighting some of the French, and no one mentions that.”

And he vigorously rejects the suggestion that the Marseilles hooligans included soldiers sent by the Kremlin in an act of "hybrid warfare."

In fact, he claims, they were not even Russia's best hooligans.

“You have to make a distinction. There’s the kids and there’s real fighters, the osnova,” he says, using a word that roughly translates as “the base” or “foundation.”

This praetorian guard of Russian hooliganism is made up of older, more experienced men who train hard, seldom drink, and follow health and fitness regimes that make them the diametric opposite of “getting drunk and having a go.”

“These are the best fighters, the first line. They’re people who never run from a fight. But they stayed away because we expected a much more serious policing operation from the French, especially given the recent terror attacks there.”

To prove the point, he sketched a map of Marseilles' Old Port and described in detail how the Russian attackers missed an opportunity to outflank French riot police and failed to set a second ambush.

“I could see those mistakes immediately just by watching on TV, and no experienced fighters would have made them,” he said. “In Marseilles it was kids, youngsters.”

“If we’d known the policing would be so limp-wristed a lot of other guys would have gone, and it would have been a very different story.”

To illustrate the point, he pointed out a well-built but far from muscle-bound man strolling past the training ground. “He’s in the osnova. He once killed a man with one punch and did five years inside for it. Now, you can imagine what it would have been like if they were there.”

“The authorities don’t really know what attitude to have to us. We have a lot of people who just don’t like the system, they don’t recognise the state, its authority, or anything like that. And people like that cannot be ruled,” he said.

“On the one hand we’re useful to the government, because they can point at us and say ‘you see how terrible and violent and scary these people are? that’s why we need so many police!’”

“But at the same time, some people in power are very fearful that this ‘army’ could be turned against them.”

As a result, Russian police have pursued a no-nonsense crackdown on domestic hooliganism in recent years that has seen mass brawls mostly banished from stadiums and many hooligans jailed.

“That’s why there will be no trouble at the 2018 World Cup. We will be strongly repressed in advance,” said Mr Khuslyutdinov. “There will be no repeat of what we’ve seen in France. It’s impossible.”