MOSCOW  - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was confident that Russia would have everything ready to host the 2018 soccer World Cup as it has a vast experience in holding major sports events.

"I am sure that everything will be up to standard and on time," Putin told an annual press conference.

(Reporting by Jack Stubbs, Vladimir Soldatkin and Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Dmitry Solovyov) ((andrey.ostroukh@thomsonreuters.com;))