“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier assigned to the Mobile Strike Force Kandak fires a RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launcher during a live-fire exercise supervised by the Marines with the Mobile Strike Force Advisor Team on Camp Shorabak, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 20, 2013. The Marines with the Mobile Strike Force Advisor Team instructed and mentored their ANA counterparts on how to properly utilize their weapons systems. (Photo by SSgt Ezekiel R. Kitandwe/RCT 7)

A parrot breeder and his parrots are seen at the Damai Perdana hill in the Cheras region ahead of the May 31 World Parrot Day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 29, 2022. A group of parrot breeders in the capital Kuala Lumpur performed a “free flight” performance with different species of parrots. (Photo by Syaiful Redzuan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A Palestinian man reacts as he confronts Israeli forces during a protest against Israeli settlement activity near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 11, 2022. (Photo by Mussa Qawasma/Reuters)

A female pitch invader is caught by a steward during Day Two of the Fourth Test between South Africa and England at Wanderers on January 25, 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

People take cover as riot police use pepper spray projectile during a protest as a second reading of a controversial national anthem law takes place in Hong Kong, China on May 27, 2020. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Commuters wearing face masks jostle for a ride on a bus discarding social distancing guidelines in Kolkata, India, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. With a surge in coronavirus cases in the past few weeks, state governments in India have been ordering focused lockdowns in high-risk areas to slow down the spread of infections. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

Josef Stalin's head is left in a Budapest street after a statue to the communist dictator was torn from its plinth during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. (Photo by Robert Hofbauer/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)