A live TV broadcast of the 16th annual end-of-year news conference by Russia's President Vladimir Putin at a home appliances store in Ryazan, Russia on December 17, 2020. (Photo by Alexander Ryumin/TASS)





A view of the Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters in downtown Moscow on December 21, 2020. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on December 21 he had tricked a security agent into admitting the Federal Security Service (FSB) sought to kill him this summer and placed poison in his underwear. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)





An activist holds an underwear with signs reading “Novichok”, referring to a Soviet-style nerve agent, during a picket in support of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, in Saint Petersburg, Russia on December 22, 2020. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)





A man feeds birds at the Lieutenant Schmidt embankment at sunset in Saint Petersburg on December 10, 2020. (Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP Photo)





Local women pose for a selfie in Lenin Square in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia) on December 13, 2020. Located in Russia's Far East, Yakutia is known for its severe climate. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





A vendor sells fish at Central Market in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. The winters in Yakutsk are extremely cold and long and the summers short and warm, with temperatures sometimes rising above 30C. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





A man at the entranec to Central Market in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. The seasonal temperature differences found in the region are the greatest in the world. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





Local people shop for fish at Central Market in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. Yakutsk is located about 280 miles (450km) south of the Arctic Circle and is the capital city of Russia’s Sakha Republic. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





A local man is seen in Pobedy Square after jogging in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





Sparrows at Central Market in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





A local woman walks in Lenin Square in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





A vendor sells fish and meat at Central Market in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





Trees covered in snow in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. It is the largest city located in continuous permafrost. With soil surface temperatures below −5 C, many of the houses have to be built on concrete piles. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





A woman wears a face mask outside in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. The lowest temperature recorded in Yakutsk was -64.4C, in February 1891. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)





People attend a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the 141st anniversary Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's birthday at his grave at the Kremlin wall in Moscow, Russia on December 21, 2020. (Photo by Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)





Pigeons sit on a decommissioned fighter plane converted to a monument in the town of Novoalexandrovsk, Stavropol region, Russia on December 18, 2020. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)





Volunteer Leonid Krasner wearing a painted protective suit stands next to a patient in the City Clinical Hospital No. 52 treating COVID-19 patients in Moscow, Russia on December 16, 2020. Leonid Krasner, aged 59, draws cheerful pictures on his personal protective equipment (PPE) and wears such suits and masks in the red zone of a Moscow hospital while taking care of people suffering from the coronavirus disease to support and cheer them up during this challenging time. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster carrying the satellites of British firm OneWeb blasts off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Region, Russia on December 18, 2020. (Photo by Russian space agency Roscosmos/Handout via Reuters)





A woman enjoys ice skating on the frozen Moscow Canal in Moscow, Russia on December 11, 2020. (Photo by Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)





An image of Santa Claus is displayed on a screen on the facade of the Salut Hotel in Moscow, Russia on December 17, 2020. (Photo by Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS)