Russian Boxing Federation lifts a portrait of late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin with a hot air balloon, close to city of Belogorsk outside Simferopol, Crimea, on May 11, 2020, to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II also called the Great Patriotic War, amid the coronavirus (COVID) pandemic. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A man wearing a face mask walks past a picture of a Russian tank in central Moscow on June 18, 2020. Russia's President Putin on June 24 will preside over a massive military parade to mark Soviet victory in World War II, which was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Yuri Kadobnov/AFP Photo)

Scaffolding holding a remnant of the Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle, is seen on a rooftop of an abandoned building in the town of Pripyat on January 25, 2006 near Chernobyl, Ukraine. The town of Pripyat, deserted since the 1986 catastrophe, once housed 30,000 people, the majority of being workers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Days after the catastrophe the inhabitants were relocated to other locations in the Soviet Union. The town of Pripyat has remained uninhabited since. Prypyat and the surrounding area will not be safe for human habitation for several centuries. Scientists estimate that the most dangerous radioactive elements will take up to 900 years to decay sufficiently to render the area safe.

People take pictures near a Soviet flag flying on an embankment in Saint Petersburg, Russia on June 17, 2023. The flags of Russia, the USSR, and the Russian Empire were installed on the shore to mark the anniversaries of each flag's adoption. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 65th mechanized brigade smoke on position of a Soviet-made 2s1 Gvozdyka 120mm howitzer in the Zaporizhia region, Ukraine, 15 November 2023, amid the Russian invasion. Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory in February 2022, starting a conflict that has provoked destruction and a humanitarian crisis. (Photo by Kateryna Klochko/EPA)

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and his daughter Irina Virganskaya attend the Free Your Mind Award Presentation at the Cinema For Peace charity dinner at the China Club on November 8, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images). BERLIN – NOVEMBER 08 2009

In this photo taken Thursday, May 7, 2015 photo, remains of Soviet soldiers killed during World War II lay in a coffin prior to a reburial ceremony at the Sinyavino Heights memorial near the village of Sinyavino, 50 km (31 miles) east of St. Petersburg, Russia. Hundreds of people came to a World War II battleground outside St. Petersburg this week to bury the remains of 964 Soviet soldiers recovered by volunteer search teams. Fifty crimson coffins containing skulls and bones were solemnly buried at the Sinyavino Heights memorial as Russian war songs played and an honor guard fired a salute. (Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Members of a historical re-enactment group dressed as U.S. and Soviet Army soldiers take part in Elbe Day celebrations, in eastern German city of Torgau at the river Elbe, April 25, 2015. Elbe Day commemorates the encounter of the Allies 70 years ago, on the 25th of April 1945 when American and Soviet army units joined together on the destroyed bridge over the river Elbe. The photograph of the meaningful handshake made its way around the world and became a symbol of the near end of World War II in Europe. (Photo by Stefanie Loos/Reuters)