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Added on the 23/01/2021 15:40:10 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
Riot police clash with anti-government protesters in Moscow, as Russians take to the streets to demonstrate against Vladimir Putin's rule. IMAGES
In the first half of 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to be coasting toward a presidency-for-life. But according to CNN, what followed instead was Putin's most challenging year to date. Putin's political durability is often attributed to a simple bargain between him and his citizens. At its essence, it is to accept limited political competition in exchange for stability and steady increases in the standard of living. But in the face of the government's ability to control the coronavirus pandemic, that deal has begun to unravel. In August, protests in Belarus frayed the deal's edges. And the August poisoning of opposition leader Alexey Navalny came close to ripping it up completely.
Dozens of people are arrested in Moscow during a protest to demand that independent candidates be included on the ballot for local elections in September. IMAGES
Speaking in Moscow on Tuesday, Russian Minister of Sports Vitali Mutko commented on the World Anti-Doping Agency's report which alleges to have uncovered state-sponsored doping programmes for Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. He slammed WADA, saying that it became a "punitive organisation" and it "places itself above the movement: it dictates the rules, it extends the lists and includes an endless amount of medication into the lists, it doesn't care about athletes, about their health".
Professor Richard McLaren presented the findings of his World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commissioned report into allegations of Russian state sponsored doping at a conference in Toronto on Monday. He described the methodology allegedly used by Russian authorities to cover up doping by the country's athletes at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
U.S. President Barack Obama attends an outdoor arrival ceremony in heavy rain, as the first sitting U.S. president to visit Laos. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
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