A participant has her body painted before a local bodybuilding and fitness championship in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, March 5, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Yakutsk, with a population of around 270,000, holds its own title: that of the coldest city on Earth. Here: Frost-encrusted house in the city centre. (Photo by Amos Chapple/Courtesy Images/RFE/RL)

These Northern Lights “rainbows” have turned the sky greener than the Earth below. Vitaly Istomin, 26, spent several nights in freezing conditions under the stars in northern Russia’s Khibiny Mountains to capture the aurora’s “rainbows”. (Photo by Vitaly Istomin/Caters News Agency)

A girl in a swimsuit participates in the BoogelWoogel alpine carnival at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort in Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi, Russia on March 31, 2018. (Photo by Artur Lebedev/TASS)

A honour guard soldier gives a flower to a girl on International Women's Day in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, March 8, 2024. International Women's Day on March 8 is an official holiday in Russia. Per tradition, men give flowers and gifts to female relatives, friends and colleagues, even though in the past two years flowers have gotten more expensive. Marches, demonstrations and conferences are being held the world over, from Asia to Latin America and elsewhere. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A boy wears a medieval helmet during a festival dedicated to the Day of Russia in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. The Day of Russia is celebrated annually on 12 June. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

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)