A billboard depicting a soldier, with a slogan reading “Contract service. A real man's job”, in St. Petersburg, Russia, 02 June 2023. On 24 February 2022, Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory in what the Russian president declared a “Special Military Operation”, starting an armed conflict. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/EPA)

A municipal worker cleans the monument of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin from a crane during preparations for the 153th anniversary of Lenin's birthday in St. Petersburg, Russia, 18 April 2023. The monument to Vladimir Lenin at the Moscow Square was installed in 1970. It was made according to the project of the sculptor Mikhail Anikushin and is the tallest monument to Lenin in St. Petersburg. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

PH Sport's driver Sebastian Loeb races against an airplane during a performance act at the Peru Dakar Rally in Lima, Peru on January 5, 2019. (Photo by Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

A woman bathes into the icy water on Epiphany during a traditional Epiphany at the Great Palace Pond with the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ostankino in the background in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, January 18, 2024. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

Actors perform during the ice sculptures festival “Ice Moscow” in Moscow, Russia, 06 January 2025. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/EFE)

People gather outside Red Square and the Kremlin for the New Year celebrations in downtown Moscow late on December 31, 2023. (Photo by Tatyana Makeyeva/AFP Photo)

A mock-up of a missile with the inscription reading as “Towards Washington. Threatening U.S. territory is the path to victory” is seen on the roof of a car parked in front of Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on January 12, 2025. (Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP Photo)

Youths kick a gay rights activist during a protest against a proposed new law termed by the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, as “against advocating the rejection of traditional family values” in central Moscow June 11, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)