This Week in Pictures: April 14-20

The Chuvash Republic, previously known for its sweats and honey, gave Russia a sweetheart for a change, as Yulia Polyachikhina became Miss Russia this year.

The Color Run 2018 race took place in Paris on April 15, 2018. The participants of the five-kilometer paint race, who are showered with colored powder at stations along the run, traditionally finish the competition with a colorful show at the Eiffel Tower.

Damascus's suburb of Douma was liberated from terrorist militia on April 14, 2018, after violent fights.

Each year people from all over Russia and abroad take part in the "Total Dictation 2018" spelling test.

More than 1,000 people took part in a mass descent in bathing suits on April 14, 2018, in the heart of Siberia, at Sheregesh resort.

Each spring public services in Moscow hold a clean-up after several months of winter, washing monuments across the city. A sculpture of Yuri Gagarin came around another anniversary of the first manned flight into space, celebrated on April 12, 2018.

People in several cities of the US and the UK, which together with France launched airstrikes on Syria following an alleged government chemical attack in Douma, join anti-imperialism and anti-war rallies demanding that the US leave Syria.

Locomotive shop "Likhobory" is the only depot for diesel units situated within Moscow.

The annual sumo tournament dedicated to the Yasukuni Shrine took place in Tokyo, Japan, on April 16, 2018. The event included both sports competitions and show fights.

Army contest "Airborne platoon" took place in the Krasnodar region on April 15, 2018. The contest involved 600 of the best soldiers of 17 platoons from all over Russia competing for 10 days.

Rallies against Armenian ex-President Serzh Sargsyan's candidacy for the post of prime minister blocked the central streets of Yerevan late on April 17, 2018.

The first thunder of this spring hit Moscow at night on April 17, leaving breathtaking photos all over social media.

The retro-train "Pobeda" (Russian for "Victory") arrived in Krasnodar on April 18. The train consisting of historical units is to make eight stops in the region prior to national Victory Day, celebrating Russia's victory in World War II.

Moscow's Presidential Regiment gathers the most exceptional infantry and cavalry soldiers from all over Russia. Guests at the Kremlin usually get the special treat of watching them in action.

French President Emmanuel Macron came to Berlin on April 19 to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, hoping to breathe fresh life into his grand vision for EU reforms in the face of growing German resistance.

People in Syria protested against airstrikes carried out by the US-led coalition following an alleged government chemical attack in Douma on April 14, 2018.

A march to mourn the death of activist Marielle Franco took place in Rio de Janeiro on April 14, 2018, one month after her murder in Lapa.
Franco, a black Brazilian activist who fought her way out of the slums to become a popular councilor, was a critic of police brutality, an advocate for minorities and the poster child of a new type of politics. She was shot dead on March 14 in an assassination-style killing with four bullets to the head.

Tourists drink wine near the Eiffel tower on April 17, 2018, in Paris.

Aurora, an eight-year-old female polar bear, plays with a plastic canister in a swimming pool recently filled with water after the winter season, at the Royev Ruchey zoo in the suburb of Krasnoyarsk, Russia April 16, 2018.

Young Somali refugee women stand together at Dadaab refugee complex, in the northeast of Kenya, on April 16, 2018.
The Dadaab refugee complex, which has some 235,269 refugees and asylum seekers in four camps about 80 km from the Somali-Kenyan border, was established in 1991, according to UNHCR camp statistics in January 2018.

On April 14, France, the United Kingdom and the United States launched strikes on a number of targets in Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria. The Syrian leadership, in its turn, denied any involvement in the attack and invited experts from the OPCW to investigate the reports.

The leader of Montenegro’s ruling Democratic Party of Socialists and ex-Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic got ahead in the presidential election with 54 percent of the vote on April 15, 2018.

Tear gas was used against protesters during clashes with French gendarmes in the zoned ZAD (Deferred Development Zone) in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes, France, April 15, 2018.

Grozny's FC Akhmat met Moscow's FC Lokomotiv in the 23d round of the Russian Football Championship.

National Ballet of Cuba dancer Daniela Gomez Perez takes a shoot before representing Cuba during a dance trip in May to Washington, Tampa and Chicago. She says Cubans love dancing and trusts the next generation of leaders will continue such traditions and that art will continue to be the engine of Cuban society.

Fishermen sell their fresh fish near a port on April 17, 2018, during a sunny day at Foca, in Izmir, western Turkey.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival took place in Indio, California, US, April 15, 2018.

A sandstorm swept through Yazd in Iran on April 16, 2018; this image was obtained from social media.

The finalists of the beauty contest "Miss Russia 2018" parading in bikinis on stage in the Barvikha concert hall.

A Kashmiri Muslim student walks past an Indian policeman during a protest against recent cases of rape in the country, in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, April 18, 2018. Fresh rounds of protests are being seen across the country, triggered by the rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir and the abduction and rape of a teenage girl in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state.