“Exactly one year before the long awaited Sochi Olympics, Vladimir Putin went to Sochi personally to see how the construction is going. After receiving a report saying the ski jumps that were supposed to be ready in 2011, are not completed still, while their price has sky-rocketed from 1.2 billion to 8 billion roubles, he commented, “Good for you. Good job”, and then fired the vice president of the Olympic committee. Russian artist Vasily Slonov painted his view of the upcoming games, giving a new interpretation to the adored Russian mascot Cheburashka, and combining officially endorsed stereotypes of Russia with grimmer and less accepted ones”. – Ruskie.info. (Photo by Vasily Slonov)

Ukrainian Serviceman Oleksii Hodzenko, aka Godzilla, was a civilian journalist. His father, Sergeant chief Dmytro "Godzilla" Godzenko was killed on March 31, 2016 at 6 a.m. in a mortar attack near the village of Zaitsevo near Horlivka in the Donetsk region. Since then Godzilla "junior" has joined the army, at a frontline position held by Ukraine's 503rd Detached Marine Battalion on February 7, 2022 near Verkhnotoretske, Ukraine. Regional tensions remain high as Russia continues to amass soldiers and military equipment along its border with Ukraine, where large swaths of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions are held by Russian-backed separatists. Russia has also moved roughly 30,000 troops into Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north. American and European officials say they do not whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a decision to invade Ukraine, but have issued a series of warnings about the country's assertive military posture. (Photo by Gaelle Girbes/Getty Images)

“On Friday, after something of a show trial, three young women in a Russian punk band were found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison for an anti-Vladimir Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral earlier this year”. – Daniel Schwartz via CBC News

Photo: A woman wears on her chest the text “free p*ssy riot” as a demonstration by supporters of the jailed feminist punk band p*ssy Riot takes place outside the Russian Embassy on August 17, 2012 in London, England. The three women who staged an anti-Kremlin protest in a church in February, were found guilty today of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, and could face a three-year jail sentence. Supporters are gathering in several cities around the world today as a mark of solidarity. (Photo by Dan Kitwood)

In this aerial file photo taken on Tuesday, October 31, 2017, a woman walks past a statue of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. The thousands of statues of Vladimir Lenin spread across the vast region bring to mind poet Vladimir Mayakovsky's ringing line of devotion: “Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live”. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A girl swings on a rope swing over the Volga River in Zavolzhsk, Ivanovo Region, Russia on June 9, 2020. (Photo by Vladimir Smirnov/TASS)

These stunning images have captured UFO type clouds forming around world famous volcano. The Kamchatka peninsula contains the volcanoes of Kamchatka, which have been captured in a series of stunning shots by photographer Vladimir Voychuk, 37, from Klin, Russia. It is said that Kamchatka is one of the most picturesque distant corners of huge Russia and attracts hundreds of photographers with its unique nature. Here: The stunning Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. (Photo by Vladimir Voychuk/Caters News)

A changing of the honor guard ceremony by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden by the Kremlin Wall in Moscow, Russia on May 29, 2020. (Photo by Vladimir Gerdo/TASS)

A wolf skin is on display for sale next to a painting of Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, at Izmailovo flea market in Moscow on December 3, 2017. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)