Actors, clowns and mime artists celebrate “Humor Day” in St Petersburg on April 1, 2022. April 1 is also referred to as “April Fool’s Day” and is a time for playing pranks in the country. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/European Press Photo Agency)

Participants run through coloured powder during the Colour Run race in Moscow, Russia on June 5, 2022. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

People watch a brig with scarlet sails floating on the Neva River during the Scarlet Sails festivities marking school graduation in St. Petersburg, Russia, early Saturday, June 25, 2022. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A model poses for a photograph backstage during Moscow Fashion Week in Moscow, Russia, Monday, October 7, 2024. (Photo by Pavel Bednyakov/AP Photo)

A woman walks in the Zaryadye Park, with a Soviet era skyscraper seen in the background, during a sunny day in Moscow, Russia on April 21, 2025. (Photo by Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)

Kites fly in the sky during the Kite Show at the historical complex “Fort Konstantin” in city of Kronstadt outside Saint Petersburg, on June 7, 2025. (Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP Photo)

A woman throws fallen leaves and jumps while posing for a photo at the Bauman garden in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, October 14, 2025. (Photo by Pavel Bednyakov/AP Photo)

(L-R) A man nicknamed "Barcelona", Alexey Bolotov and Alexey Jakushin drink vodka as they travel by a pioneer motorised railcar on their way to Kalach, Sverdlovsk region, Russia October 18, 2015. The "pioneer," a light auxiliary rail vehicle, is a popular form of transport among people who live along the Alapayevsk railway. In a remote corner of the Urals region at the end of a narrow-gauge railway is Kalach, population about a dozen. Three decades ago 600 people called the village home, but the local forestry industry suffered as the former Soviet Union imploded and people moved away in search of work. In Kalach today there are no telephones, no mobile reception and only a few hours of electricity a day. (Photo by Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)