A placard featuring an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin and reading “We are with him for the sovereignty of Russia! And you?” is seen left in front of the Russian State Duma building in central Moscow on February 24, 2022. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

A worker cleans a statue of the founder of the Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin at Moscow Square in front of the House of Soviets in Saint-Petersburg on April 21, 2022. (Photo by Olga Maltseva/AFP Photo)

“A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring more than 500 people (20 had been hospitalized in serious condition), many of them hurt by broken glass. “There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people's houses to check if they were OK”, said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometres (930 miles) east of Moscow, the biggest city in the affected region”. (Photo by Alexey Bulaew/RIA Nowosti)

Street animators wearing fancy costumes take a break on a bench in a park in Stavropol, Russia on March 14, 2021. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

Final-year student Alina Repkina prepares for a livestream of the Last Bell ceremony for school leavers at secondary school No 11 in Rostov-On-Don, Russia on May 30, 2020. It is the first time in Russia that such ceremonies have been held via video link due to the coronavirus lockdown restrictions. (Photo by Valery Matytsin/TASS)

A girl swings on a rope swing over the Volga River in Zavolzhsk, Ivanovo Region, Russia on June 9, 2020. (Photo by Vladimir Smirnov/TASS)

A woman says goodbye to a reservist drafted during the partial mobilisation, before his departure for a military base, in Sevastopol, Crimea on September 27, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters)