Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as he bids the last farewell to his wife Raisa Gorbacheva during the funeral ceremony in Moscow, Russia, 23 September 1999 (reissued 30 August 2022). According to a Moscow Central Clinical Hospital statement, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91. As a supporter of the de-Stalinization programs of his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev, Gorbachev initiated numerous reforms during his tenure. He signed a nuclear arms treaty with the United States and withdrew the Soviet Union from the Soviet-Afghan war. His policies created freedom of speech and press, and decentralized fiscal policy planning and execution to increase efficiency. Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, overseeing Russia’s transition from one party rule to fragile democracy. (Photo by Sergey Chirikov/EPA/EFE)

Customers ride escalators at a shopping mall in central Moscow, Russia on March 2, 2019. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

A masked man in military fatigues brings a blindfolded Irma Krat, arrested and held by pro-Russian protestors before her meeting with journalists near of occupied police station in Slaviansk, Ukraine, 21 April 2014. Pro-Russian activists are demanding broader autonomy from Kiev and closer ties to Russia. Pro-Russian activists continued occupying government, police and other administrative buildings in eastern Ukrainian cities, in defiance of an ultimatum by the Ukrainian government to lay down their weapons. Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine on 17 April had agreed on steps to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine during talks in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA)

An engineer (L) talks to a driver of a dump truck loaded with gold-bearing soil at the Vostochny opencast of the Olimpiada gold operation, owned by Polyus Gold International company, in Krasnoyarsk region, Eastern Siberia, Russia, June 30, 2015. Polyus Gold International is the largest gold producer in Russia and one of the top 10 gold miners globally by ounces produced, according to the official web site of the company. Olimpiada is Polyus Gold's largest operation. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A vendor sells fruits and nuts at the Green Bazaar in Almaty January 23, 2015. Kazakhstan is spending billions of dollars of its reserves to keep devaluation of its currency gradual and reduce inflationary risks of the sort thrown up in Russia by the rouble's slide, analysts and former central bank officials say. Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy, is closely tied to Russia through trade and, like other ex-Soviet states, has been feeling the pain of the crisis which has driven the rouble down 50 percent against the dollar since the start of 2014. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

“These eerie formations in the sky may look like alien ships. But as the Daily Mail points out, they’re actually a natural occurrence called lenticular clouds”. – Claudine Zap. Photo: Lenticular clouds hover of the mountains of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. (Photos by Denis Budkov/Caters News)

A member of a local swimming club holds a Russian national flag as he dives in at the start of a 24-hour swimming marathon near the western Siberian city of Barnaul March 29, 2014. Thirty members of the club will swim in turn during the event, held to mark Crimea becoming part of Russia, local media reported. (Photo by Andrei Kasprishin/Reuters)

Six-month old female liliger cub Eva plays in snow with her mother Zita in the Zoo in Novosibirsk, Russia, Thursday, December 5, 2013. The cub's mother is Zita, a liger – half-lioness, half-tiger, and its father is a lion, Sam. (Photo by Ilnar Salakhiev/AP Photo)