trade organization for retaliating against its towers renowned palestinian photographer anetta saeed has died in jail in syria nearly three years after he was arrested by government forces this is one of sides most famous photographs he's won awards for documenting life in the yarmulke refugee camp in southern damascus he was reportedly tortured to death in prison france's world cup winning football team have returned home to a hero's welcome huge crowds in paris have greeted the players who were crowned champions after beating croatia four to the incomes twenty years after france's first world cup triumph and those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story by.

a wave of joy in rush hour after a thrilling and to a successful world cup but after the euphoria what's next for moscow on the many challenges it faces at home and abroad and what lessons the cast of the hosts of the next games in twenty twenty two this is the inside story. the at the at. the in. and over and welcome to the program on norco for over a month people around the world were captivated by a single of vent football's world cup in russia the highs of victory in the use of defeat was shared by millions of fans watching on television and attending the games the hosts russia it's been a resoundingly success the president called it the best tournament ever but

russia's government hasn't escaped criticism especially from rights groups who say it's use the world cup to distract from challenges at home i have a lot to get to with our guests in just a moment but first roy chalons has this report from moscow. the party is almost over many of the visitors have gone already but this country is still blowing the past month has been a tonic for russia often people here feel the world is against them perhaps now that perception is changing so we are enjoying the trip knowing places from russia will be able to. rise through our reception to the brazilians russia is a big beautiful country people love for russia is so nice a world cup hasn't a raised accusations of russian there or a tearing ism rights concerns or the fragility of autonomy but for

a while at least it's allowed russia to feel positive about itself. without the usual undercurrents of confrontation. probably because of our problems with the drowned in politics and economics and this championship became a gulp of fresh air it let is brief then forget about everything next week we'll think about what's happening in our country but now we're just enjoying the celebration. officially the review is no less positive president giani in frontino gave his verdict on friday a resoundingly thumbs up i lifted a new lifted to any is the best world cup ever little went wrong much went right russian policing not renowned for its soft touch was on best behavior a country that often struggles with infrastructure managed to move fans to matches in cities hundreds sometimes thousands of kilometers apart. russia's world cup may be earning plaudits for its efficient security and organization but that by itself

is not enough for a great party you also need a little bit of magic and that happened here on nicholas carr street in central moscow it spontaneously established itself as the beating heart of this well car place where russia and the world. got together and how to pull. before matches russians and foreigners to party after matches with little draw they partied hard i'm a list alexander bound of things there's a big demand for this new mood in russia russians and being tied to be in. india's high alert against the rest of the world they were happy to or find it in themselves to give her insight of the trip she's not the violent cycle but your case in part because you are able to be patriotic and are to show your patriotic feelings in hospital that you wouldn't hosting rights for the world cup was

important enough for vladimir putin that he personally accepted the honor in zero can two thousand and ten but interestingly he's been a marginal figure for much of the tournament's one or two photo ops attending the opening match in the final the kremlin is perhaps realize that heavy handed official p.r. is not needed putin has left russians to present their best face to the world and it's worked to reach alan's al-jazeera moscow. let's bring in our guests now and joining us from moscow maria let min an independent russian analyst from london bill nor founder of gulf masses and contempt at the middle east and also joining us from moscow via skype raul paris a global football writer of the associated press news agency a very well welcome to all of you rob let me start with you because you've been there in russia covering the world cup you are now at the airport coming to us via

skype as are just about to leave was it the best world cup ever. well certainly on the page you produced and really thrilling performances shock some great games that made it open field and indeed helps the television ratings and helps to sort of live out revenue fifty five and over sixty stadiums as well they've already owned all i mean the russian state was able to mobilize all its resources to ensure that the right to riches replacing the one infrastructure is there around them so in terms of back it's going to be hard to judge that whether it's the best ever if you have to take a long view of that sixty the legacy was the investment worth it with the stadiums actually used in the long term by regular and club sides and indeed how do the people react to other actually changes in the country as well as a result due to the relaxation of laws may stay in place in the long term we want to be looking at from a purely from perspective it was certainly an engrossing so i'm will absolutely get to the legacy in just

a moment first of all bill your thoughts did anyone expect it to be as good as it was. well and terms of football no i don't think so i thought it was a superb world cup in terms of how russia handle it i think the russians did themselves proud i think that they show themselves quite adept they were able to present an image of russia to the world that was open and hospitable and welcoming there is another side to russia of course that is the authoritarian side but mr putin was able to shed that particular garment and put on a much friendlier. coat. just give us a feeling of what it's been like to be a police felt like to be russian even these past few weeks and months. well those were amazing weeks with people reach you are seeing on the streets of moscow and

other cities and for other cities it is even more remarkable because in the rush hour we have more foreigners and we're more used to international events of course not of that scope what of course was totally amazing was these crowds of people speaking in different languages or repped up in their national colors the flags and painting their faces and the russians totally welcoming and as happy as the guests and happy to show rusher as indeed a hospital and welcoming country forgetting that the world was up against russia forgetting that in the myth that the foreigners were enemy is the national media have pro fest have for for at least a few years now so it was indeed. i think one muscovites. in your food a gulp of fresh air it was unlike anything else that we've seen in the past two years so maria wants more close to the truth closer to the truth this open friendly

country or the hostile enemy of the west. well i think it's more complicated than no country is just one thing and it is indeed true that russia is authoritarian and there are problems to say the least with human rights but it's not the whole thing in maybe disappointing to human rights activists but people are not over focused on human rights and even those who are could get distracted in actually enjoyed getting distracted in. ensuring the world cup with everybody else well what is the other side of rush or i think we will be reminded quite soon it will be interesting to see how this summit between trump in putin will go and what the results will be but of course the way the russian people were readjusted to being open and rejoicing and happy to welcome to house. foreigners from all over the world shows that in fact it is also there it just depends on what the

environment and whether people are on the pressure or not they were not for the weeks of the world cup group how much do you think it helps should i say that putin took very much a back seat during this world cup use at the beginning and he was there at the end but not much in the middle and in the beginning in the run up to the event it was called putin's cup but it really wasn't was it. well he was in that very many games not known speed sixty eight big football fan but he was there as fronts and sense that for him to basically get the reflected glory i think of the certainly the success that some staying here for russia managed to. detoxify the image is used i should write scripts you say actually as a matter of sports cleansing the fact you using a sports event today to distract people from some of the issues that assessed but the fact he actually stayed away did not keep the politics of wife's case well kept and even if he did attend you had sudanese president charged with genocide and

crimes against humanity was there of course the d.b.i. pierre is that this shows how it's very hard to detach the politics from the football but i think people recognize that during a world cup people just want to actually focus on the games and the matches do take over and the thrills the spills that are like spain struggling to hold just germany getting out in the group stage and it really ensures that the actual clay is and the stars and indeed the fans men and the local russians because they were the front and face of the likes my selves were going round six is in many cases cities that were closed cities during soviet times you are used to begin but so far in his news you did seem very welcoming bill do you think that once the euphoria has rubbed off or got a bit of a hard landing in russia and how hard that is going to be or will this positive vibe be able to carry russians through in front of a bit longer well i suspect it's going to be.

a return to. what what russia was. you know a few weeks ago which is a hardline authoritarian state where critics are dealt with dissidents scourged i think the issues that russia faces haven't gone away the canonic issues are very big and troubling for many russians i think that yeah they've had this opportunity to enjoy this world cup and good on em it's been a fantastic few weeks but i do think that those problems i thought they haven't disappeared they're still there they're real and mr putin regardless of what he accomplishes with donald trump is still going to have to deal with and it's a question of how he deals them i suspect he will deal with them as he has done in the past which is to attempt to silence all criticism and when it comes to the economy has there been much of

a boost seen why would we russians because of this world cup well i think yes i'm sure that the economy has taken a bounce up but again that that's that's a short term fix clearly there was a lot of beer and alcohol that vendors who benefited from this world cup and souvenirs and kit and and all those sorts of proceeds the big winner in this i suspect is in terms of the financial gain i don't think that it's going to have a lasting economic impact i could stand to be corrected on that but that's my interpretation. will be the stadiums promise that they'd be sustainable have humans to vibrant football clubs was that a sense that you got some in some. in very sort of remote places only very far from moscow. yamin they all scattered around the continent thinking to wanted some armor that was bill of rights the middle of the forest and some of them do not have top flight clubs they might have a team in the second division which means it's hard to sell them when they've got

tens of thousands of seats and perhaps not the audience there and then we haven't seen in volgograd yesterday just as the final was taking place of the slide around the stadium say yes maybe they didn't quite say next to the water bear but that is generated from in russia and in many of these wealthiest honest asian country that require a lot of infrastructure to be built the fact it isn't necessary needs in the long term particularly all the stadia with bus hospitality facilities and obviously the question many russians will have put the put to better use spent on infrastructure away from football where although a lot of questions within russia as to why so much money was spent on stadiums and as rob said so much hospitality infrastructure surrounding them. well i think this is not something that will be questioned and there is a ferry ostrom limits to on how accountable the russian government is to its people

in fact i would say that it's not i think people are happy are those in those cities where new stadiums were built or old stadiums were upgraded these were will be the places for people to use and i think all the russian people in general i think that the expenses even if they are very high were worth it much worth then on other issues the big expenditures are illiquid by the government people did have fun and they will have wonderful memories and i don't think expenditures will be issue and i agree that it will not give a boost to the economy certainly not ok and we talked earlier on the human rights issues maria i mean human rights watch says that the world cup was a lost opportunity that football's governing body could have used the event as a woman leverage over the kremlin do you agree with that. well no i don't think

so our i think our wish you'd look at these things separate and indeed a country any country is several things at the same time it's not totally focused on one or the other in especially a country as large and diverse as russia has all of it it has people who are really happy to would be open to the world into in jury the grand of the end to show the openness and by the way in his opening words before the world cup which instead we open our country and it would open our hearts to you in a sense this was true for those weeks but at the same time there is politics and there is domestic politics and there is a crackdown on freedoms in liberty is. of course there is a very very difficult problem of their relations with the west if the recent nato summit is any indication the perception of russia has not changed because of this extremely successful world cup the nato summit was hailed during the world cup in

the final statement of the summit is absolutely the same as far as the perception of russia in the west is concerned it list of accusations russia seeing is a threat the west totally unwilling to recognize that any responsibility for the current confrontation dangerous confrontation is on the west itself ok let's throw the discussion forward to twenty twenty two russia's president vladimir putin has passed the ball to the next world cup host castle of the country's leader shakes i mean them been hammered on pani joined putin and feet as president as an official handover ceremony at the kremlin on sunday katha will be the first country in the middle east to host the world cup and the games will be held in the cooler months of november and december daria man says he's confident that twenty twenty two will be a success. but cottle has been under an economic blockade for more than a year saudi arabia u.a.e.

egypt and bahrain cut diplomatic ties last june it organizes say this is had very little impact on preparations to run a guy has more. let's sell stadium and behave will host both the opening game and the final and when it's finished in around two years' time it will seat around eighty thousand spectators now with the tournament being moved to december it also means those fans will avoid the kind of summer heat that we're experiencing today as part of its winning bid council promise to take apart many of the stadiums set the end of the world cup and send sections to developing countries to help them grow the game of course that's only part of the legacy cattles leaders and well organizes a still hoping football can bring this region closer together. and i hope what lessons should cattle take away from russia because cattle hosting also has kind of controversy attached to it well i think that's one of the main things is ensuring

sounds actually have something to do i think a lot of nuns were surprised and brushed by the ability to see new sights travel the country and to experience a new thing so actually it's it's actually cheap in the mental pain knowing that. as many as much tourist infrastructure in cats are as well there will be questions almost always about the availability of alcohol but any bus or even there the ranch the restrictions in place but it is actually about the travel which i think fans will notice and cats are russia as being very challenging at times to go through moscow even when your stats are around the country and perhaps the big thing that sounds when. you don't have to fly anywhere and that's the just equally it should be simpler for them absolutely i mean the big question is how do you keep all these people entertained them build a castle have what has what it takes to be as amazing as promising. well i think laura that's the big the big challenge that. qatar faces i mean

the thing about russia was that fans from approach there was some trepidation some concerns about hooliganism but when they got there they found the russians very welcoming very opening so that was a pleasant surprise and yes the travel was challenging but they got to see this enormous country and it was exciting i think the difficulty with with doha and i don't i don't want to knock the city it's got some fabulous architecture has got a wonderful museum of islamic art but there isn't that much going on and if you think about british tourists who go to dubai they get the full treatment in terms of all of the available tourist sites i'm not sure that the law is the same as the same capability that that's going to be a real issue and the alcohol is rob mentioned that's another issue one can't imagine a world cup without gallons and gallons of beer being consumed by by fans particularly it is a english fans so yeah there are i think they're going to be big challenges on that

front i think it's going to be a challenge to in terms of the football because if you think about it they're playing in in november and december that's going to really interrupt the a professional leagues the premier league for example a lot of players went went to russia from the premier league and i'm not sure that fans here are going to be that tickled about seeing their teams and their season disrupted by by this solution to the issue of the heat in the summer movie get into into november and december but would have made a difference do you think if they had made a joint regional bid something like we're seeing in twenty twenty six the u.s. canada and mexico if we'd had some kind of region wide world cup twenty in twenty. i think not as much of a much thought in the genesis of the discussions before they actually launch the fed but i don't and people were too keen on it's always did lead to the singular tapped out that a joint bid across the region actually helps spread the burden of the stadiums i

think a lot of people do question and why and if capital needs to spend the money building so many stadiums when it does not have the need for the necessary afterwards obviously what you're going to say is some of them would be broken down and that to be possible be spread out to clean parts of africa but actually the building is not required so there is stress on the logistics and infrastructure in capital the fact there is only the one apple and there are. really up in the hotels around and there was going to be built up to accommodate tens of thousands of fans and the teams and the officials was actually that burden would have been spread out across the region and perhaps who knows maybe the issues that we've seen in the last year with the boycott by the neighbors would not happen if they were actually part of a unified world cup they have leverage points when you have to have quite a thought isn't it maria one of the controversies of course migrant workers' rights there was a similar issue being faced in russia wasn't there and that the spotlight being

shown on the workers' rights especially the construction workers the construction like the building the stadiums did that make any difference. well actually as a matter of fact the problem of migrant workers in russia has become less acute in recent years in and i would say less acute than it is in europe right now thing is that we have this problem and. i'm sorry to say ratio ethnic sentiments were really high and i'm talking here about twenty thirteen for instance when the mejor alexion in moscow were elong the racial alliance both as far as the incumbent campaign is concerned in that of his opponent but since then well for two reasons one of them being that the russian economy in general is on decline so we need less migrant workers workforce in that there have become less of an irritant to relabel in big urban centers in the other is an extension of crimea which kind of overshadowed the

ethnic nationalism and replaced it by state nationalist more call it imperial and nationalist as you like so the sentiment the negative sentiment tow it people with different. experience different features different colors have not been that acute just in the last minute that we have the euphoria of the event rubs off do we see a return them to all the major issues that russia faces when it looks out of the world. yeah i think we do i think that russia will still have to contend with all of those issues and the world and europe will have to contend with with russia the challenges haven't gone away the world cup was a respite it was a break we all enjoyed it to reflect but the real world comes back in and intervenes and there are many many issues many areas of friction not least of which is syria and during the world cup the russians and the basher us assad they secured

a significant victory which consolidates assad and really secure is him in the long term as the syrian leader these are not times that are going to go away those issues those frictions will remain and i think that football is something you enjoy for the time but the real world comes back and and will continue to challenge us and indeed enjoyable for a time it was many thanks indeed for our guests for joining us today maria lipman bill law and rob paris and thank you to you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website as al-jazeera dot com for the discussion to go as well facebook page at facebook dot com for slash a.j. inside story you know the join the conversation on twitter handle is at a.j. inside story from me laura kyle i'm the whole team here despite the now you will we are the and we'll.

capturing a moment in time snapshots of other lives of the stories. providing attempts into someone else's work. inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers everybody's going to know what we did the sacrifices that may. be so long as the memory of. witnesses on al-jazeera.

al jazeera. and for you. on counting the cost why china wants an expanded economic role in the middle east look at which countries are leading the way in innovation say for parents of causing one of the world's most profitable and widely used lead killers goes on trial counting the cost on. the world's primary could change producing nation is at the forefront of the war on drugs that we're talking about serious organized crime as a country where reaching a critical point while some have made fortunes many others have suffered at the hands of this multibillion dollar industry who through this business will go on for ever get from a change almost global policies do who are the winners and losers of this illicit

trade snow of the andes on al-jazeera. matheson in doha the top stories on the us president has sided with russia instead of his own intelligence agencies over allegations of meddling in the twenty sixteen election met his russian counterpart vladimir putin in helsinki his comments are being condemned by both u.s. republicans and the democrats. i do feel that we have both made some mistakes i think that the the probe is a disaster for our country i think it's kept us apart it's kept a separate it there was no collusion at all everybody knows that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is that him

credible offer.