This picture taken on February 6, 2024 shows an electronic screen on the facade of a building displaying an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his quote on the achievements of Russia in 2023, in Moscow. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)





Muscovites write letters to political prisoners in the office of the liberal party Yabloko in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, February 29, 2024. Yabloko hosts monthly letter-writing evenings across the country. With protests all but stifled, more and more Russians at home and abroad are seeking to help political prisoners by writing them letters. (Photo by Dmitry Serebryakov/AP Photo)





Russian Army servicemen stand near a mobile recruiting center, during an exhibition of military hardware used in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as it arrived on a train promoting the Russian army, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia on March 3, 2024. (Photo by Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters)





A person throws flowers towards the grave of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny while standing in front of a closed entrance to the Borisovskoye cemetery, in Moscow, Russia, on March 3, 2024. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)





Communist party supporters lineup to place flowers at Josef Stalin's grave near the Kremlin Wall to mark the 71st anniversary of his death with the Mausoleum of the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in the background, in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Josef Stalin led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





Russian President Vladimir Putin sits in a cockpit of a flight simulator at the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after Anatoly Serov in Krasnodar, Russia, Thursday, March 7, 2024. (Photo by Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Photo)





In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state owned agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin operates a simulator during a visit at the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots in Krasnodar on March 7, 2024. (Photo by Mikhail Metzel/Pool via AFP Photo)





A man carries bunches of flowers purchased from the flower market on International Women's Day, in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. International Women's Day on March 8 is an official holiday in Russia. Per tradition, men give flowers and gifts to female relatives, friends and colleagues, even though in the past two years flowers have become more expensive. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





A view shows an apartment block next to chimneys of a thermal power plant in Omsk, Russia on March 8, 2024. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





A man goes down the escalator in the subway holding bunches of flowers purchased from the flower market on International Women's Day, in Moscow, Russia, early Friday, March 8, 2024. International Women's Day on March 8 is an official holiday in Russia. Per tradition, men give flowers and gifts to female relatives, friends and colleagues, even though in the past two years flowers have gotten more expensive. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





A honour guard soldier gives a flower to a girl on International Women's Day in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, March 8, 2024. International Women's Day on March 8 is an official holiday in Russia. Per tradition, men give flowers and gifts to female relatives, friends and colleagues, even though in the past two years flowers have gotten more expensive. Marches, demonstrations and conferences are being held the world over, from Asia to Latin America and elsewhere. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A man walks by a fortified Pyaterochka supermarket, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Shebekino in the Belgorod region, Russia, on March 11, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





In this pool photograph distributed by Russia's state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to TV host and Director General of Rossiya Segodnya (RIA Novosti) news agency Dmitry Kiselyov at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via AFP Photo)





A service member casts her ballot in Russia's presidential election in Moscow on March 15, 2024. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)





People vote in Russia's presidential election in Yekaterinburg in the Urals on March 15, 2024. (Photo by Anna Yurieva/AFP Photo)





A huge screen broadcasting live feed from polling stations across Russia sits in the country's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) headquarters in Moscow on March 15, 2024, the first day of voting in the presidential election. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)





A man casts his vote in a mobile ballot box as members of a local electoral commission visit his home during the presidential election in the village of Novoaleksandrovka in the Omsk Region, Russia, on March 15, 2024. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





Members of a local electoral commission work at a polling station during the presidential election in the village of Vyndin Ostrov in the Leningrad Region, Russia on March 15, 2024. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)





A woman studies her ballot during the presidential election in Novosibirsk, Russia on March 15, 2024. (Photo by Vladislav Nekrasov/Reuters)





A member of a local electoral commission carrying a mobile ballot box leaves a house of local residents during the presidential election in the village of Novoaleksandrovka in the Omsk Region, Russia, on March 15, 2024. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)