“Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T. He was a diversely talented 20th-century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor”. – Wikipedia. Photo: Romain de Tirtoff (Erte) – “Symphony In Black” (please click to enlarge).

A pro-Russian armed man secures crash site wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane (flight MH17) at the site of the plane crash near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region November 16, 2014. Local emergency services have begun collecting parts of the wreckage from its crash site in the middle of the conflict zone, Dutch air accident investigators said on Sunday. Dutch inspectors had hoped to collect the parts themselves, following the downing of the flight on July 17 that killed 298 people, two thirds of them Dutch citizens. But they remain concerned about the safety of their staff in the rebel-held conflict zone, and so have decided to work with local services following an initial focus on finding human remains and belongings. (Photo by Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

Rush-hour in Russia means one thing for this daredevil: train surfing! The 19-year-old daredevil who goes by the name Kobzarro started train surfing aged 15 as a way of escaping an oppressive family life. Here Kobzarro can be seen balanced on top of a train as it speeds through the wintery Russian environment. Kobzarro is so dedicated to train surfing that she rarely gets inside a train. Even in winter she prefers to travel in this less conventional way. It has resulted in a few run ins with the law, but Kobzarro says it has never resulted in anything more serious than a fine, with many police officers even being interested in the train surfing community. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

Roof-topping enthusiast Daniel Lau takes a selfie with high-rise buildings down below as he stands on the top of a skyscraper in Hong Kong, China on August 15, 2017. A craze that began in Russia has now taken hold in Hong Kong, one of the world's most vertical cities. Mr Lau said he had been inspired by Russian climbers and that he was unafraid of the vertiginous heights he scales. (Photo by ImagineChina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman learns how to use an AK-47 assault rifle during a civilians self-defence course in the outskirts of Lviv, western Ukraine, on March 4, 2022. The Russian army occupied on March 4, 2022 the Ukrainian nuclear power plant of Zaporozhie (south), the largest in Europe, where bombings in the night have raised fears of a disaster as more than 1.2 million people have fled Ukraine into neighbouring countries since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, United Nations figures showed on March 4, 2022. (Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP Photo)

A woman argues with police officer during a protest in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Ulan-Ude, the regional capital of Buryatia, a region near the Russia-Mongolia border, Russia, Wednesday, April 21, 2021. Navalny's team has called for nationwide protests on Wednesday following reports that the politician's health was deteriorating in prison, where he has been on hunger strike since March 31. Russian authorities have stressed that the demonstrations were not authorized and warned against participating in them. (Photo by Anna Ogorodnik/AP Photo)

Ukrainian artist Dariya Marchenko works on a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin named “The Face of War” which is made out of 5,000 cartridges brought from the frontline in eastern Ukraine, in Kiev, July 23, 2015. The portrait will be presented along with a novel which will tell personal stories of six people involved in this project including Daria's own story and stories of people who helped her to collect shells from the frontline. Daria Marchenko calls her art approach philosophic symbolism where every element has its hidden meaning. In her works cartridges mean human's life that was brutally ended. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Engineer Mikhail Venin works on an antenna for the Express AM8 new generation geostationary telecommunications heavy satellite at the large-sized transformed mechanical systems centre of the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems company in the Siberian town of Zheleznogorsk April 2, 2014. The Express AM6 is a new generation satellite providing services including Russian governmental and presidential mobile communication, digital television and broadcasting, according to the Reshetnev company representatives. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)