A participant poses with the Russian Imperial crown near an installation at the exhibition of the 28th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in St. Petersburg, Russia, 20 June 2025. The forum runs from 18 to 21 June 2025. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/EPA/EFE)





Participants walk at the venue of the 28th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in St. Petersburg, Russia, 20 June 2025. The forum runs from 18 to 21 June 2025. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/EPA)





Russia's President Vladimir Putin (C) speaks with an officer, a Hero of Russia during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexandrovsky Garden near the Kremlin wall to commemorate the 84th anniversary of the Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 during the Memory and Sorrow Day in Moscow on June 22, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via AFP Photo)





A woman jumps over a fire during the celebration of the summer solstice at a festival in the village of Okunevo in Omsk region, Russia on June 22, 2025. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





A Russian Emergency Situation ministry firefighter works to extinguish a wildfire near Atamanovka, in Transbaikal Territory in Zabaikalsky Krai of eastern Russia, Monday, June 23, 2025. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)





Frigate “Rossiya” (Russia), with scarlet sails, floats on the Neva River during a general rehearsal for the Scarlet Sails celebration in St. Petersburg, Russia, 27 June 2025. The traditional celebration is organized in honor of students from elementary and high schools, as well as military academies, as they finish their educational terms and hold graduation ceremonies in Russia’s second-largest city. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/EPA)





Spectators watch fireworks exploding in the sky and the brig “Rossiya” (Russia) with scarlet sails floating along the Neva River during festivities in honour of school graduates, in Saint Petersburg, Russia on June 29, 2025. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)





Bubbles form on a puddle during rainfall in central St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, June 29, 2025. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A woman walks by a temporary shopping pavilion decorated with giant sequins in Moscow, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (Photo by Pavel Bednyakov/AP Photo)





An employee carries a portrait of former transport minister Roman Starovoyt, who died recently, during a farewell ceremony in Moscow on July 10, 2025. Russia's former transport minister Roman Starovoyt killed himself, Moscow announced on July 7, 2025, hours after the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had fired him. Starovoyt, 53, had been Russia's transport minister for a year and was previously the governor of the border Kursk region, where Russia had battled a Ukrainian incursion. (Photo by Tatyana Makeyeva/AFP Photo)





Children run in a fountain in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, July 12, 2025. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





People attend a large-scale costumed Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) festival on the Moskva River in Moscow, Russia, 13 July 2025. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA)





A women takes a selfie photo with a wax sculpture of U.S. President Donald Trump at a wax sculptures museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, July 14, 2025. (Phoot by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A woman walks past clothes laid out to dry during a hot day in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on July 15, 2025. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)





Travel agents talk to each other while waiting for tourists, under umbrellas during rainfall, near Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





Police detain an activist in front of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 22, 2025, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist”. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)





A girl paints in front of the Kremlin's Spasskaya tower and St. Basil's cathedral in downtown Moscow on July 23, 2025. Russian and Ukrainian officials are due to meet in Istanbul on Wednesday for a third round of peace talks, their first meeting in more than seven weeks amid US pressure to reach a ceasefire. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)





In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a flag-raising ceremony for the latest Project 955A (Borey-A) strategic nuclear-powered submarine Knyaz Pozharsky in Severodvinsk on July 24, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Kazakov/Pool via AFP Photo)





An employee of the Museum of Urban Sculpture cleans the gilded star atop the monument to the defenders of Leningrad during the World War II upon preparations for the upcoming Russian Navy Day, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





Children cools off in a fountain at VDNKh (The Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy) enjoying the warm weather during sunset in Moscow, Friday, July 25, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)