A member of Wagner group stands guard in a street in the city of Rostov-on-Don, on June 24, 2023. President Vladimir Putin on June 24, 2023 said an armed mutiny by Wagner mercenaries was a “stab in the back” and that the group's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had betrayed Russia, as he vowed to punish the dissidents. Prigozhin said his fighters control key military sites in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

The 100-metre (300-foot), sword-wielding statue of “The Motherland” is seen in the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in Kiev March 17, 2014. On a blustery day on the banks of the Dnieper, the statue of “The Motherland”, a Soviet hammer and sickle on her shield, towered overhead, a reminder of the common cause Ukrainians and Russians died for side by side in their millions in World War Two and which Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks Ukraine has betrayed by turning to “fascism” and the West. (Photo by Konstantin Grishin/Reuters)

Activists stage a theatrical play where gay people are restrained by others wearing masks depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a protest against Russia's new law on gays, in central London, Saturday, August 10, 2013. Hundreds of protesters, called for the Winter 2014 Olympic Games to be taken away from Sochi, Russia, because of a new Russian law that bans “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” and imposes fines on those holding gay pride rallies. (Photo by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo)

The International Space Station (ISS) moves along its orbit above at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, July 18, 2019, with a statue of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin in the foreground. Circular star tracks around the Polar Star and tracks of the ISS is the result of the camera multiple exposure with a total duration of two hours. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

“Russia's emergencies minister accused local officials on Monday of not doing enough to prevent 171 deaths in weekend floods that raised new doubts about the country's readiness for natural disasters under President Vladimir Putin”. – Andrey Kuzmin via Reuters

A surfer rides a wave at the snowy beach of Unstad, in Lofoten Island, Arctic Circle, on March 9, 2016. Surfers from all over the world comes to Lofoten island to surf in extrem conditions. Ocean temperature is 6-7 °C, air temperature around 0°C in spite of a weather very unstable. (Photo by Olivier Morin/AFP Photo)

These otherworldly images give a rare glimpse inside caves barely ever seen by the human eye. With its peculiar pools of water and strange colored sediments, the bizarre looking tunnels of the Shakuranskaya cave could be a set straight out of a science fiction film. Found in the disputed region of Abkhazia, around 75 miles outside of Sochi, Russia, it is rumored the incredible underground chambers were formed after a huge earthquake struck the area in 1892. After causing part of a nearby mountain to collapse into the Amtkel River, it is thought the dam-like affect has created a series of interconnecting underground tunnels. Here: a large pool of water inside one of the tunnels. (Photo by Vladimir Mulde/Caters News)

A demonstrator holds up a picture depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin with make-up, during a protest by the gay community in Amsterdam April 8, 2013. Russia does not discriminate against homosexuals, Putin told reporters in Amsterdam on Monday where he was greeted by gay rights and other activists critical of Russia's track record. Putin is on one-day visit in the Netherlands for the start of the Netherlands-Russia Year. (Photo by Cris Toala Olivares/Reuters)