People bath in water during a traditional Epiphany celebration as the temperature dropped to about –18 degrees (–0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) near the Achairsky monastery outside the Siberian city of Omsk, Russia, Friday, January 19, 2024. (Photo by Evgeniy Sofiychuk/AP Photo)





People line up to sign petitions in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, for Boris Nadezhdin, a liberal Russian politician who Is seeking to run for president in the March 17 election. Supporters lined up not just in progressive cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg but also in Krasnodar in the south, Saratov and Voronezh in the southwest and beyond the Ural Mountains in Yekaterinburg. There also were queues in the Far East city of Yakutsk, 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, where Nadezhdin's team said up to 400 people a day braved temperatures that plunged to about minus 40 Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) to sign petitions. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





People sign petitions in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, for Boris Nadezhdin, a liberal Russian politician who is seeking to run in the March 17 presidential election. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A boy plays a shooter computer game inside the Russian Defence Ministry pavilion at Russia Expo, an exhibition designed to demonstrate Russia's main achievements in culture and technology, at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (VDNH) in Moscow on January 24, 2024. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)





In this photo taken from video released by Russian Investigative Committee on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, the wreckage of the Il-76 is seen near Yablonovo, Belgorod region of Russia, Thursday, January 25, 2024. Russia and Ukraine are trading accusations over the crash of a military transport plane that Moscow said was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war and was shot down by Kyiv's forces. The Il-76 crashed in a huge ball of fire in a rural area of Russia, and authorities there said all 74 people on board, including 65 POWs, six crew and three Russian servicemen, were killed. (Photo by Russian Investigative Committee via AP Photo)





The Kremlin is seen next to the partially frozen Moskva river in Moscow, Russia on January 26, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





Cadets attend a commemoration ceremony at the monument of the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, January 27, 2024. The ceremony marked the 80th anniversary of the battle that lifted the Siege of Leningrad. The Nazi siege of Leningrad, now named St. Petersburg, was fully lifted by the Red Army on Jan. 27, 1944. More than 1 million people died mainly from starvation during the nearly900-day siege. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A man wears World War II ages Soviet Army's uniform near a portrait of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin at a military-historical exhibition at the Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, January 27, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





Cadets attend a commemoration ceremony at the monument of the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, January 27, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A woman cries during a commemoration ceremony at the monument of the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, January 27, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) and Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko (L) address the audience at the opening ceremony of a monument to civilians killed during World War Two, near the village of Zaytsevo, Leningrad region, on January 27, 2024, as part of events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad from Nazi blockade during WWII. (Photo by Dmitry Azarov/Pool via AFP Photo)





People visit a military-historical exhibition at the Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, January 27, 2024. The exhibition marked the 80th anniversary of the battle that lifted the Siege of Leningrad. The Nazi siege of Leningrad, now named St. Petersburg, was fully lifted by the Red Army on Jan. 27, 1944. More than 1 million people died mainly from starvation during the nearly900-day siege. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A man poses as his acquaintance takes pictures on a street in the town of Vyborg, Russia on January 28, 2024. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)





Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty's editor Alsu Kurmasheva stands in a glass cage in a courtroom in Kazan, Russia, Thursday, February 1, 2024. A Russian court on Thursday ordered a detained Russian-American journalist to be held in jail for two more months pending her trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent. (Photo by Vladislav Mikhnevskii/AP Photo)





A woman walks on Red Square, with the State Historical Museum seen in distance, during a heavy snowfall in Moscow on February 7, 2024. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)





Believers gather around a ritual bonfire during the Dugzhuuba, a Buddhist pre-New Year ritual of purification, near the Datsan Gunzechoinei Buddhist Temple in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, February 8, 2024. During the Dugzhuba ritual believers symbolically purify by eliminating all negative and harmful energies. This ritual takes place on the eve of the Buddhist New Year, called by Russian Buddhists as Sagaalgan, and follows the lunar calendar. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to US talk show host Tucker Carlson at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 6, 2024. (Photo by Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via AFP Photo)





Dancers perform Dragon Dance during Lunar New Year's Eve in Moscow, Russia, on February 9, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





A dancer performs during celebrations of Lunar New Year's Eve in Moscow, Russia, on February 9, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





Dancers perform a dragon dance during the celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve in Moscow, Russia on February 9, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)