People perform during the Archstoyanie 2023 festival in the village of Nikola-Lenivets, Kaluga region, Russia on July 29, 2023. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Russian Orthodox believers take a dip in the ice cold water of a pond during the celebrations of the Orthodox Epiphany holiday, in Moscow, Russia on January 18, 2024. People believe that dipping into blessed waters during the holiday of Epiphany strengthens their spirit and body. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/EFE)

A view of the cemetery where the graves of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Russia-Ukraine war are located as daily life continues in shadow of war in Kursk, Russia on August 18, 2024. (Photo by Vladimir Aleksandrov/Anadolu via Getty Images)

An electric scooter for rent covered with snow stands on street after a snowfall at a residential area in Moscow, Russia, 07 April 2025. (Photo by Maxim Shipenkov/EPA/EFE)

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.

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)

A mobile phone cover with a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin and which reads “Mr President” is seen in this photo illustration taken a in hotel room in Kazan, Russia, July 30, 2015. He may be in charge of an economy in crisis, but if mobile phone covers and souvenir mugs are a barometer of popularity, Russian President Vladimir Putin need not fear for his political future. In fact, Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last year has given the memorabilia makers even more material to glorify, sometimes wryly, a president whose image as a champion of Russian national interests in a hostile world is barely challenged in his own country. (Photo by Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)

A Husky dog looks on before a sled and skijoring race in the village of Kadnikovo outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, December 10, 2016. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)