With sports and politics mixing at the highest level Tuesday,Russia’s prospects of hosting the 2018 World Cup dimmed afterreports that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin might not lead the bid’sfinal presentation on Thursday.Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the prime minister was set tovisit Russia’s westernmost enclave of Kaliningrad on Thursday butstopped short of saying that Putin wouldn’t attend the FIFA meetingin Zurich, gazeta.ru reported.Putin’s name was not on a FIFA-submitted list of five intendedspeakers for the presentation, but he could still participateinstead of Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, bid spokesmanAndreas Herren told The Associated Press.The FIFA executive committee will vote on the 2018 and 2022World Cups on Thursday, and Russia had been favored to get thefirst of the two.Putin’s possible absence likely will energize 2018 rivalEngland, already boosted Tuesday by the arrival of Prime MinisterDavid Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham in FIFA’s homecity.England’s A-list lineup was hoping to limit potential damagecaused by a BBC television investigation broadcast Monday thatalleged corrupt dealings by four voters from FIFA’s executivecommittee.”I’ve only got one focus here and that’s trying to bring theWorld Cup home for England,” said Cameron, who began his intenseschedule teaming with Beckham to meet FIFA President Sepp Blatter,who will vote in…