Russian cheese maker Oleg Sirota gestures during his interview with the Associated Press in Dubrovskoye village, in Istra district, 51 km. (31,8 miles) west of Moscow, Russia, Thursday, July 15, 2021. Thursday is the deadline the authorities set for eligible companies to ensure that 60% of their staff receive at least one shot of a vaccine. Sirota, founder of a cheese factory that has dozens of retail outlets in and around the Russian capital, said that as of Thursday, 70% of staff have received their shots, but the reluctance was difficult to overcome. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





A Russia fan shows their support prior to the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship Group B match between Finland and Russia at Saint Petersburg Stadium on June 16, 2021 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)





A performer in traditional costume from Peru dances at the 6th CIOFF World Folkloriada (Folklore Festival) in the village of Mishkino, Bashkortostan, Russia on July 5, 2021. World Folkloriada is an international event organised every four years by the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts (CIOFF), an official partner of UNESCO safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. This year, 2,000 performers from more than 60 countries are expected to take part in the folklore festival. (Photo by Yegor Aleyev/TASS)





Men climb in an excavator bucket in the flood-hit neighbourhood of Kudepsta, Khostinsky District in Sochi, Russia on July 5, 2021. Intense rains have sparked a drastic surge in water levels of the local rivers. (Photo by Dmitry Feoktistov/TASS)





A woman walks a dog past a fountain near Finland railway station in St Petersburg, Russia on July 10, 2021. (Photo by Peter Kovalev/TASS)





Applicants get ready as they wait prior to perform in front of the jury for their admission exam at the circus college in Moscow, on July 5, 2021. The State College for Circus and Variety Arts named after M. N. Rumyantsev (Karandash) was founded in 1938 and is the only professional circus educational institution in Russia. For more than 90 years, the school has been training pop and circus artists. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)





An overturned tank is pictured on a road near the village of Troitskoye in Sakhalin Region, Russia on July 12, 2021. The tank has fallen off a tractor truck. (Photo by TASS/Stringer)





A boy cools off in a fountain during a hot summer day in downtown Moscow on July 13, 2021. Russia's meteorological service said on July 13, 2021 the country could see its hottest summer on record, driven by climate change, after a record-breaking heatwave in June. Moscow was hit by a historic heat wave at the end of June, with temperatures reaching a 120-year record. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)





A woman passes Members of historical clubs dressed in the uniform of French soldiers during ceremony of repatriation of the remains of French General Charles-Etienne Gudin de la Sablonniere, participant in the French Revolutionary wars and Napoleonic wars, to France in Moscow airport Vnukovo-3, Russia, 13 July 2021. One of Napoleon Bonaparte's favourite military commanders died in the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian campaign of 1812. The search for his remains was one of the main goals of the joint archaeological expedition, which the historians of the two countries, led by Pierre Malinowski, President of the Foundation for the Development of Russian- French Historical Initiatives, began in the summer of 2019. A significant find was made during excavations at the Royal Bastion in the Lopatinsky Garden of Smolensk. (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA/EFE)





A dog grins as local residents check a yard burnt by a forest fire in the settlement of Dzhabyk in Chelyabinsk Region, Russia on July 11, 2021. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





A fire truck drives across a forest burnt by wildfire towards to the sattelment of Zapasnoye in Chelyabinsk Region, Russia on July 12, 2021. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





Local residents are seen by a house in the village of Aromat damaged by the overflow of the Kokkozka River in Crimea, Russia on July 4, 2021. According to the local branch of Russia's Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet), heavy rains are expected in western, southern, eastern, and central regions of Crimea on July 4 and 5. (Photo by Sergei Malgavko/TASS)





A woman climbs the stairs to queue for a COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Gostiny Dvor, a huge exhibition center, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. The banner, center, reads “We will defeat COVID-19 together!”. Russia gave Sputnik V regulatory approval in August 2020, raising criticism at home and abroad because it had only been tested on a few dozen people at the time. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





People swim in the Neva River on the beach of the Saint Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, July 14, 2021, with the Winter Palace, the St.Isaac's Cathedral and a warship moored for incoming Navy Day celebration in the background. The temperature in St. Petersburg is 33C (91F). (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A woman wearing a face mask stands on a platform in a metro station in Moscow on July 6, 2021. Russia reported 737 coronavirus deaths on July 6, a national record of pandemic-related fatalities over a 24-period, as the country battles a new surge in cases. It marks the first time Russia, the fifth worst-hit country in the world for the number of infections, has crossed the 700-mark for daily virus deaths. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)





A medic wearing a special suit to protect against coronavirus prepares to treat a patient with coronavirus at the City hospital No. 52 for coronavirus patients in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Russia has been facing a rapid surge of coronavirus infections in recent weeks, with the number of daily confirmed cases soaring from about 9,000 in early June to over 25,000 last week. For the first time in the pandemic, the daily death toll exceeded 700 last Tuesday and has remained at that level ever since. (Photo by Denis Kaminev/AP Photo)





Combines harvest wheat in a field near the village of Nedvigovka in Rostov Region, Russia on July 13, 2021. (Photo by Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters)





A medical worker prepares to give an injection of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Gostinny Dvor, a huge exhibition place in Moscow, Russia, Monday, July 12, 2021. Russia has been facing a sharp rise of contagions in recent weeks, with daily new infections increasing from around 9,000 in early June to over 25,000 on Friday. (Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo)





A woman steers her SUP-Board at Ladoga lake near the city of Olonets, 300 kilometers (186 miles) north-east of St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, July 8, 2021. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)