Children ride on a carousel next to the Spassky Tower on Red Square in Moscow, Russia on December 2, 2023. (Photo by Getty Images/Stringer)





A worker removes icicles from a sculpture adorning a building in Saint Petersburg, Russia on December 1, 2023. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)





A woman rides a pony in a park during heavy snowfall in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, December 3, 2023. A record snowfall has hit Russia's capital bringing an additional 10 cm (3,9 inches) to already high levels of snow and causing disruption at the capital's airports and on roads. (Photo by Arthur Novosiltsev/Moscow News Agency via AP Photo)





A woman walks past Christmas market stalls in the snow-covered Red Square in Moscow on December 3, 2023. (Photo by Alexey Pavlovsky/AFP Photo)





People watch figure skaters perform on the opening day of the largest skating rink in St. Petersburg with an area of 11,400 square meters, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, December 3, 2023. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A woman walks down a street during heavy snowfall in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, December 3, 2023. A record snowfall has hit Russia's capital bringing an additional 10 cm to already high levels of snow and causing disruption at the capital's airports and on roads. (Photo by Sergei Vedyashkin/Moscow News Agency via AP Photo)





Russian Rosguardia (National Guard) servicemen walk at VDNKh, The Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy during heavy snowfall in Moscow, Russia, Monday, December 4, 2023. A record snowfall has hit Russia's capital bringing an additional 10 cm (3,9 inches) to already high levels of snow and causing disruption at the capital's airports and on roads. (Photo by Sergei Kiselev/Moscow News Agency via AP Photo)





A young woman swims in ice water celebrating opening of the 65th winter swimming season of the Moscow Walrus Club in Serebryany Bor during heavy snowfall in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, December 3, 2023. A record snowfall has hit Russia's capital bringing an additional 10 cm to already high levels of snow and causing disruption at the capital's airports and on roads. (Photo by Pelagia Tikhonova/Moscow News Agency via AP Photo)





Vendor Nyurgusun Starostina, 47, poses for a picture at an open-air market on a frosty day in Yakutsk, Russia, December 5, 2023. Temperatures in parts of the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia and located in the northeastern part of Siberia, went below minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit) on December 5. (Photo by Roman Kutukov/Reuters)





People walk near the front deck gun of the Aurora Cruiser, moored in St. Petersburg, Russia, at sunset on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. 106-years ago crew members on the Aurora used the front deck gun to fire a blank shot giving the signal to leftist fighters to storm the Winter Palace and to begin the Bolshevik Revolution. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





Cars drive on the bridge over the Irtysh River in Omsk, Russia on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)





In this photo taken from video released by Russian Investigative Committee on Thursday, December 7, 2023, an investigator works at the scene of shooting in a class-room of a school in Bryansk, Russia. Russian state news agencies and authorities say a Russian schoolgirl has shot several of her classmates with a gun before killing herself. Initial reports said five people were injured and two were killed, including the shooter, in the incident on Thursday. (Photo by Russian Investigative Committee via AP Photo)





Snow is pulled from a transportation belt of a communal vehicle to a truck with the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin in the background, on a frosty day in Moscow, Russia on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





A person is seen waiting for the bus on the street covered with snow and ice as cold weather conditions negatively affect daily life in Yakutsk, the capital of the Sakha Republic eastern Siberia on December 07, 2023. Although people are used to the harsh conditions of winter, the air temperature in Yakutsk drops to minus 30 degrees in the daytime and minus 50 degrees in the night. (Photo by Slava Lyufa/Anadolu via Getty Images)





A man rides a bicycle in a park in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, December 8, 2023. The temperature in St.Petersburg is around –16 Celsius (3.2 Fahrenheit). (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)





A winter swimming enthusiast swims in an ice hole at a lake in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk with the air temperature at around minus 35 degrees Celsius on December 9, 2023. The tattoo reads “Glory to the Rus (referring to Russia)”. (Photo by Vladimir Nikolayev/AFP Photo)





A girl rides a ski lift at a ski club outside Moscow on December 10, 2023. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)





The newly-built nuclear submarine The Krasnoyarsk is seen after a flag-raising ceremony on Monday for newly-built nuclear submarines at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk in Russia's Archangelsk region, Monday, December 11, 2023. The navy flag was raised on the Emperor Alexander III and the Krasnoyarsk submarines during Monday's ceremony. Putin has traveled to a northern shipyard to attend the commissioning of new nuclear submarines, a visit that showcases the country's nuclear might amid the fighting in Ukraine. (Photo by Kirill Iodas, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Photo)





Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, visits the newest frigate “Admiral of the fleet Kasatonov” during a flag-raising ceremony on Monday for newly-built nuclear submarines at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk in Russia's Archangelsk region, Monday, December 11, 2023. The navy flag was raised on the Emperor Alexander III and the Krasnoyarsk submarines during Monday's ceremony. Putin has traveled to a northern shipyard to attend the commissioning of new nuclear submarines, a visit that showcases the country's nuclear might amid the fighting in Ukraine. (Photo by Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Photo)





A man walks on the Vinogradovsky Bridge across the Yenisei River, as the air temperature plunges as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit), in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia on December 12, 2023. (Photo by Alexander Manzyuk/Reuters)