A woman feeds ducks in a park in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, November 18, 2022. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A view shows a fire behind a residential building located in Novoye Devyatkino settlement following a reported explosion of a gas pipe line in the Leningrad region, Russia on November 19, 2022. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)





People walk past St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow's Red Squarein Moscow, Russia on November 22, 2022. (Photo by Marina Lystseva/TASS)





Russian opposition activist and municipal deputy of the Krasnoselsky district Ilya Yashin gestures standing in a cage in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, November 23, 2022. A trial against Yashin, one of the few prominent opposition figures who haven't left Russia, has begun on Wednesday. He has been charged under a new law making it a crime to spread false information about the military and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. (Photo by Dmitry Serebryakov/AP Photo)





A local resident covers up a pig with snow while slaughtering it on a frosty day in the village of Bobrovka in the Omsk region, Russia on November 23, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





In this handout photo provided by The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation, Russian lawmakers attend a session of the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, November 24, 2022. Russian lawmakers have given their final approval to a bill that significantly expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBTQ rights in the country. (Photo by The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation via AP Photo)





A woman poses for photo at the Museum of Torture in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, November 25, 2022. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





Workers dismantle the Nissan logo sign near the assembly plant, after the Japanese automaker completed the sale of its Russian legal entity to state-owned NAMI, in Saint Petersburg, Russia on November 25, 2022. (Photo by Igor Russak/Reuters)





A view shows a steam train of Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, and Snow Maiden, which travels all over the country ahead of the New Year and Christmas season, upon its arrival at a railway station in Omsk, Russia on November 27, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





Russian conscripts called up for military service look out of a train window before their departure for garrisons at a railway station in Omsk, Russia on November 27, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





People enjoy skating on the ice rink opened on Red Square, with the GUM State Department store in the background in Moscow, Russia, Monday, November 28, 2022. Moscow temperatures on Monday dropped to –5°C (–23 F). (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)





Russian opposition activist and former municipal deputy of the Krasnoselsky district Ilya Yashin stands in a cage in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, November 29, 2022. Yashin, one of the few prominent opposition figures to have remained in the country amid an intensifying crackdown on dissent was arrested in June in a Moscow park and later was charged with spreading false information about the Russian military – a new criminal offense for which he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)





In this handout photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, November 30, 2022, a view of a Tu-95 strategic bomber of the Russian air force taxiing before takeoff for a joint air patrol with Chinese bombers at an airbase in an unspecified location in Russia. Russian and Chinese strategic bombers on Wednesday flew a joint patrol over the western Pacific in a show of increasingly close defense ties between the two countries. (Photo by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP Photo)





In this image taken from footage provided by the RU-RTR Russian television on Sunday, December 4, 2022, bodies of dead seals are seen on shore of the Caspian Sea, Dagestan. Officials say that about 1,700 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia. Authorities in the Russian province of Dagestan say that it’s still unclear what caused the animals’ death, but they likely died of natural reasons. (Photo by RU-RTR Russian Television via AP Photo)





A woman takes part in an initial military training for civilians at the sports and patriotic club “Yaropolk” in Krasnogorsk outside Moscow, Russia on December 3, 2022. (Photo by Yulia Morozova/Reuters)





A man immerses in the icy waters of the Irtysh River on the opening day of the winter swimming season in Omsk, Russia on December 4, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





Russian President Vladimir Putin, flanked by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin (L), visits the Kerch Strait Bridge, also known as the Crimean Bridge on December 5, 2022. The bridge, that links Russia's mainland with the Crimean Peninsula, was damaged by an attack on October 8, 2022. (Photo by Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik via AFP Photo)





A person jogs past dead seals washed up on the coast of the Caspian Sea in Makhachkala, Russia on December 6, 2022. (Photo by Kazbek Basayev/Reuters)





Russia firefighters battle a massive blaze the size of a football pitch which broke out overnight at the Mega Khimki shopping and entertainment centre in Moscow's northern suburb of Khimki, on December 9, 2022. Russian media later reported that one person had been killed in the fire. Russian news agencies quoted sources in emergency services as saying that “arson” was suspected but state news agencies later quoted sources as saying that safety violations were more likely the cause. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)





Russian opposition figure and Moscow city councillor Ilya Yashin, charged with “discrediting” the Russian army fighting in Ukraine, flashes a victory sign inside a defendants' box during a verdict announcement at the Meshansky district court in Moscow on December 9, 2022. A Russian court found opposition figure Ilya Yashin guilty of spreading “false information” about Russia's military intervention in Ukraine, the highest-profile conviction under new legislation criminalising criticism of the conflict. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/Pool via AFP Photo)