“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 view of the Sheikh Zayed highway in Dubai and some high rise buildings, November 8, 2007. (Photo by Steve Crisp/Reuters)

Visitors walk through a tulip display in Chaya Mountain, Suiping County in Zhumadian, Henan Province of China on March 31, 2016. There are more than ten varieties of tulips here. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

A female Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighter stands near a security position in Sinjar, March 13, 2015. Women fighters at a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) base on Mount Sinjar in northwest Iraq, just like their male counterparts, have to be ready for action at any time. Smoke from the front line, marking their battle against Islamic State, which launched an assault on northern Iraq last summer, is visible from the base. Many of the women have cut links with their families back home; the fighters come from all corners of the Kurdish region. (Photo by Asmaa Waguih /Reuters)

A man walks past a mural along a street in New Delhi on June 30, 2023. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

Maddie Stanton (L) and River compete in Helen Woodward Animal Center's 18th Annual Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon at Del Mar Dog Beach on September 10, 2023 in Del Mar, California. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

Two female revelers engage in a beer drinking contest in the Hacker Pschorr tent on the first day of the 2017 Oktoberfest beer fest on September 16, 2017 in Munich, Germany. Oktoberfest is the world's largest beer celebration and typically draws over six million visitors over its three-week run. Oktoberfest includes massive beer tents, each run by a different Bavarian brewer, as well as amusement rides and activities. (Photo by Philipp Guelland/Getty Images)

A Malaysian Royal Guard wears a protective mask while he stands guard outside National Palace, following the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 10, 2020. (Photo by Lim Huey Teng/Reuters)