In modern Russia there are no free elections, therefore the political elite is almost constant.

Photo: Valentina Matvienko, Mayor of St. Petersburg, attends the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on June 17, 2011 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Global business leaders have gathered in Russia for the three-day conference. (Photo by Alexander Aleshkin/Epsilon/Getty Images)

Protest posters are attached to the walls surrounding the “Occupy London” camp outside St. Paul's Cathedral on November 01, 2011 in London, England. The Dean of St. Pauls Cathedral The Very Reverend Graeme Knowles resigned yesterday over the church's handling of the anti-capitalist “Occupy London” demonstration, which continues to occupy the grounds outside the cathedral. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Members of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park to mark the 60 anniversary of the accession of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on February 6, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

St. Mark's and Panagia Erithiani church congregations perform “Rocket War” by firing thousands of home-made rockets across the sky during Greek Orthodox Easter celebrations in the town of Vrontados on the Greek island of Chios on April 19, 2014. Greek habit of throwing handmade rockets with the aim of hitting the bell tower of the church at the other side during the celebration of the service at midnight before Easter Sunday. (Photo by Cem Oksuz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A frog sits on a leaf and instead of seeing a reflection of itself in the water below, it sees a snail, attached to the bottom of the leaf, in a fish tank in Vietnam. (Photo by Duong Quoc Dinh/Solent Ne/SIPA Press)

Traveling Chairso n Hakone Road. (Photo by Kusakabe Kimbei)

Graduates dance as they take part in a “Last school bell” ceremony at a school in Minsk, Belarus on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)