“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

A devotee of the Chinese shrine of Kathu Shrine, pierces his cheeks with umbrellas during a procession of Vegetarian Festival on October 4, 2011 in Phuket, Thailand. Ritual Vegetarianism in Phuket Island traces it roots back to the early 1800's. The festival begins on the first evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts for nine days. Participants in the festival perform acts of body piercing as a means of shifting evil spirits from individuals onto themselves and bring the community good luck. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

Revellers celebrate moments before the rocket fire or “Txupinazo” marks the start of the Festival of San Fermin (or Sanfermines) at Consistorio square in Pamplona, Spain, 06 July 2014. The annual nine day long running-with-the-bulls fiesta commemorates St. Fermin, Pamplona's patron saint. (Photo by Javier Lizin/EFE)

These brave models show no fear as they pose with bears, tigers and wolves in scenes straight from the pages of a fairy tale. The snaps show the models cuddling up to the deadly animals and even taking naps with the often unpredictable creatures. Here: “Marina with a bear”. Stepan, a 700-pound grizzly bear, was adopted by a Russian couple when he was just 3 months old. (Photo by Olga Barantseva/Caters News Agency)

A couple walk on a catwalk in a flooded Saint Mark Square during a period of seasonal high water in Venice on October 29, 2018. Venice frequently floods when high winds push in water from the lagoon, but Monday's levels are exceptional and forecast to rise even higher, to 160 centimeters (nearly 63 inches) by mid-afternoon. (Photo by Manuel Silvestri/Reuters)

A couple kiss in front of a barricade set by demonstrators during clashes with police following a protest condemning the arrest of rap singer Pablo Hasél in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, February 18, 2021. Protests over the imprisonment of a rapper convicted for insulting the Spanish monarchy and praising terrorist violence have morphed for the third night in a row into rioting. Pablo Hasél began this week to serve a 9-month sentence in a northeastern prison. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

A couple covered in mud wait for it to dry at the Salt-works lakes near the Black Sea town of Burgas in Bulgaria on July 25, 2019. Thousands of tourists visit the red salt lakes for mud baths, which are believed to help the healing of muscular disorders and rheumatism. (Photo by Nikolay Doychinov/AFP Photo)

Visitors watch a tree decorated with about 10,000 Easter eggs in the garden of the retired couple Christa and Volker Kraft in Saalfeld, central Germany, Tuesday, March 19, 2013. The Kraft family has been decorating their tree at Easter for more than forty years. (Photo by Jens Meyer/AP Photo)