Marines of the Baltic Fleet forces of the Russian Navy train in the zone of obstacles during military exercises at the Khmelevka firing ground in the Kaliningrad region, Russia on November 24, 2021. (Photo by Vitaly Nevar/Reuters)

US President George W. Bush (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin wave as the two presidents go for a ride in Putin's 1956 Volga before dinner 08 May 2005 at the his residence outside of Moscow. Bush hailed Russia's “bravery and sacrifice” in defeating Nazism, as he met Putin ahead of ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Bush, who the previous day criticized the decades-long Soviet occupation of central Europe, said he was looking forward to the 09 May ceremony on Moscow's Red Square, to be attended by over 50 national leaders. (Photo by Tim Sloan/AFP Photo)

A sailor of the Marshal Shaposhnikov anti-submarine destroyer takes part in the “Vostok-2022” military exercises at the Peter the Great Gulf of the Sea of Japan outside the city of Vladivostok on September 5, 2022. The Vostok 2022 military exercises, involving several Kremlin-friendly countries including China, takes place from September 1-7 across several training grounds in Russia's Far East and in the waters off it. Over 50,000 soldiers and more than 5,000 units of military equipment, including 140 aircraft and 60 ships, are involved in the drills. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

Vendor Nyurgusun Starostina, 47, poses for a picture at an open-air market on a frosty day in Yakutsk, Russia, December 5, 2023. Temperatures in parts of the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia and located in the northeastern part of Siberia, went below minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit) on December 5. (Photo by Roman Kutukov/Reuters)

Every year, in the Rostov region of Russia, a group of 40 young and not so young rural workers compete in the Bison Track Show, or more affectionately known as: Russian Flying Tractor Racing. In front of crowds numbering up to 30,000 people, a series of smoke spilling, monstrous farming machines tear round an 8km mud track, plowing through lakes and dirt mounds, their turbos screaming and tyres scrabbling to find grip.

A Husky dog looks on before a sled and skijoring race in the village of Kadnikovo outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, December 10, 2016. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Fire fighters, emergency service vehicles and a helicopter in Moskovsky Prospekt at the entrance to Tekhnologichesky Institut station of the St Petersburg metro in the aftermath of an explosion which occurred in a train at 14:40 Moscow timeon April 3, 2017. (Photo by Peter Kovalev/TASS)

A woman applies lipstick in a car that is parked at a beach facing a volcanic rock called Devil's Finger outside Yuzhno-Kurilsk, the main settlement on the Southern Kurile island of Kunashir September 15, 2015. Russian residents of the island chain at the centre of a dispute between Japan and Russia that has held up a treaty to formally end World War Two hope a diplomatic solution will lure tourists and investment to help refurbish rickety infrastructure. The Southern Kuriles are referred to in Japan as the Northern Territories. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)