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 woman holds a portrait of Alexei Navalny and a book titled “A saint against the Reich” as people gather outside the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 1, 2024. Relatives and supporters of Alexei Navalny are bidding farewell to the opposition leader at a funeral in southeastern Moscow, following a battle with authorities over the release of his body after his still-unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony. (Photo by AP Photo)

Members of an electoral commission destroy unused ballots, after polling stations closed on the final day of the presidential election in Saint Petersburg, Russia on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

(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)

A Russian Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jet takes off during the withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria at Hmeymim airbase, Syria, March 16, 2016. (Photo by Vadim Grishankin/Reuters/Russian Ministry of Defence)

Russian servicewomen march at Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow on May 9, 2017. Russia marks the 72nd anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

A girl with Russian national flags painted on her cheeks takes part in celebrations marking the first anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea, in central Simferopol March 16, 2015. Russia marks one year anniversary of annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula this week. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

A destroyed T-72 tank, which presumably came from Russia, is seen on a battlefield near separatist-controlled Starobesheve, eastern Ukraine, October 2, 2014. The burnt-out remains of dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles in fields near the small village of Horbatenko bear witness to the ferocity of a battle that turned the tide of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Among the debris, Reuters found the blackened carcasses of what military experts have since identified as two Russian army tanks, supporting statements by Kiev and the West that the rebels were backed by troops and equipment sent by Moscow. (Photo by Maria Tsvetkova/Reuters)