The propagation characteristics of laser beam passing through turbulent atmosphere and scattering medium are reviewed. As a laser beam propagates through turbulent atmosphere, its propagation properties will be affected. In this case, the laser beam still keeps the beam-like characteristic, therefore the propagation of laser in the turbulent atmosphere based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral canbe investigated. It is shown that some parameters of the incident light beam, such as beam width, polarization, spatial coherence, and scintillation factor, will experience significant change as the light beam propagates in the turbulent atmosphere. The change of these parameters is not only dependent on the properties of atmospheric turbulence, but also on the characteristics of the incident light beam. Therefore, the influence of the atmospheric turbulence on beam propagation can be reduced by choosing suitable parameters of the incident light beam. It is shown that the speckle pattern will be generated as the coherent laser beam passes through the scattering medium, and by modulating the wavefront of the incident laser beam, the laser beam can be focused after passing through the scattering medium. The techniques to realize focus as a laser beam passes through the scattering medium, including feedback-based wavefront shaping, transmission matrix, and digital phase conjugation, have been introduced. Finally, the applications of these techniques in laser propagation through realistic atmosphere is prospected, for example the propagation through fogs and clouds.