An employee walks near a rotary dredge which works on the coal face of the Borodinsky opencast colliery, near the Siberian town of Borodino, east of Krasnoyarsk, December 9, 2014. The Borodinsky colliery, 9 km (5.6 miles) long and more than 100 meters (328 feet) deep, annually produces more than 20 million tons of coal and is considered to be the biggest opencast coal mine in Russia, according to official representatives. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Every year, in the Rostov region of Russia, a group of 40 young and not so young rural workers compete in the Bison Track Show, or more affectionately known as: Russian Flying Tractor Racing. In front of crowds numbering up to 30,000 people, a series of smoke spilling, monstrous farming machines tear round an 8km mud track, plowing through lakes and dirt mounds, their turbos screaming and tyres scrabbling to find grip.

Actors perform during the ice sculptures festival “Ice Moscow” in Moscow, Russia, 06 January 2025. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/EFE)

Two men carrie a basket of flowers purchased from the flower market as a woman makes a selfie on the eve of an International Women's Day, in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, March 7, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

A squirrel begs for food from a scooter driver in a park in Moscow on September 2, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)

Demonstrators confront riot police during clashes in central Brussels November 6, 2014. Tens of thousands of public and private sector workers, employees and trade union members demonstrated over austerity measures to be taken by the new Belgian government. (Photo by Francois Lenoir/Reuters)

Activists protest against the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI on the eve of his arrival on September 21,2011 in Berlin, Germany. A variety of groups, including the poltically left-wing as well as gay and lesbian rights advocates, partook in the demonstration. The Pope is scheduled to visit Germany from September 22–25. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

(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)