A grab from a video taken on 7 December 2020 and released by the North Caucasian branch of Russia’s fisheries agency shows the body of a dead Caspian seal on a beach in Makhachkala. Russian authorities said they were investigating the mysterious death of nearly 300 endangered seals that had been discovered washed up on the shores of the Caspian Sea. (Photo by North Caucasian branch of Russia/AFP Photo)





A man walks through a square after snowfall as workers assemble a Christmas tree, with the main Mosque and skyscrapers in the background in downtown Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, Russia, Sunday, December 6, 2020. (Photo by Musa Sadulayev/AP Photo)





A crescent moon is seen behind Moscow's Sobornaya mosque on December 10, 2020. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)





A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus disease rides in a metro train in Moscow on December 9, 2020. Russia confirmed 26,190 new Covid-19 cases on December 9. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)





Christmas tree baubles wearing face masks on display at the Biryusinka factory in Krasnoyarsk, Russia on December 4, 2020. Biryusinka, a manufacturer of Christmas tree ornaments and toys, has launched the production of COVID-19 themed baubles. (Photo by Andrei Samsonov/TASS)





Craftswoman Natalya Savchuk holds a crochet blanket in the village of Martyushevo, Tara District in Omsk Region, Russia on December 7, 2020. (Photo by Sergei Malgavko/TASS)





An industrial climber clears ice from suspension cables on Zolotoy Bridge across the Golden Horn Bay to Russky Island in Vladivostok, Russia on December 6, 2020. Traffic on the bridge is limited due to the works; traffic on Svetlanskaya and Korabelnaya Embankkments under the bridge is shut down during the daytime. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS)





A 96-year-old fir tree that will be put up at the Moscow Kremlin's Cathedral Square this New Year and Christmas cut down in the woods of the Naro-Fominsk District in Moscow Region, Russia on December 9, 2020. The 25-meter high tree will be delivered to Moscow on December 11. (Photo by Sergei Fadeichev/TASS)





Father Vasily Gelevan, wearing a face mask and gloves to protect against the coronavirus, conducts a funeral service for a person who died of COVID-19 as only two relatives stand next a coffin amid the outbreak at the Church of the Annunciation of the Holy Virgin in Sokolniki in Moscow, Russia, Friday, December 4, 2020. Russia has been swept with a resurgence of the outbreak this fall, with numbers of new infections exceeding the levels recorded early in the pandemic. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





Russian medical worker, right, administers a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, December 5, 2020. Thousands of doctors, teachers and others in high-risk groups have signed up for COVID-19 vaccinations in Moscow starting Saturday, a precursor to a sweeping Russia-wide immunization effort. (Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo)





A man with a horse harnessed to a cart takes part in the filming of a scene of the historical film near the freezing Neva River during sunset in St. Petersburg, Russia, 10 December 2020. Temperatures dropped to minus seven degrees Celsius in the second largest city of Russia. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/EPA/EFE)





A medical worker wearing protective gear escorts a woman, suspected of having coronavirus, at a hospital in Kommunarka, outside Moscow, Russia, Saturday, December 5, 2020. (Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo)





A visiter wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus looks at her smartphone as she walks in the GUM State Department store decorated for Christmas and New Year celebrations virtually empty due to the coronavirus pandemic in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, December 3, 2020. Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V will be available for people in high-risk groups at 70 medical facilities in Moscow starting on Saturday. According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, those working in education and medical facilities, along with municipal workers, can get the shots. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





The sun sets behind Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia on December 8, 2020. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)





A waiter sets a table inside a transparent pod offered for private Christmas meals with backdrop of the Kremlin and Red Square on the rooftop of Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow, Russia on December 8, 2020. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





Andreyka, a 10-month-old female bear cub, plays with Rommi, an Alaskan malamute, at the Siberian Zoo in the settlement of Listvyanka, Irkutsk Region, Russia on December 9, 2020. The bear cub, which was found in a weak condition earlier this year, now play-fights with the Alaskan malamute, who adopted her and has seen three generations of bear cubs brought up in the Siberian zoo and released back into the wild. (Photo by Yuri Novikov/Reuters)





Kiters take part in the annual Siberia cup outside the city of Novosibirsk on December 6, 2020. (Photo by Rostislav Netisov/AFP Photo)





In this photo taken from a video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, Russian a rocket launches from missile system as part of the drills, a ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia. The Russian military has conducted sweeping drills of its strategic nuclear forces that featured several practice missile launches. (Photo by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP Photo)





A member of a local military-patriotic club takes part in a ceremony marking the Day of the Unknown Soldier near a World War Two monument in Stavropol, Russia on December 3, 2020. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)