Hu backs Russia's right to host Winter Olympics

DUSHANBE: President Hu Jintao has backed Russia's right to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in the face of international pressure over recent events in Georgia.

"We want to assure (Russia) that China will firmly support it to host the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi," Hu told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when they met in the Tajik capital before the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) summit.

Some Western politicians have said Russia has no right to host the Winter Olympics because it recognized two Georgian breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as independence states.