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

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)

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)

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)

Stadium security stop a pitch invader during the UEFA EURO 2020 Group B football match between Finland and Belgium at Saint Petersburg Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on June 21, 2021. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool via AFP Photo)

Sailors attend a memorial and funeral service for first rank captain Andrei Paliy, Russia's Black Sea Fleet deputy commander, who was killed in the eastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on March 20, in Sevastopol, Crimea on March 23, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters)

A Russian Su-35S combat aircraft and a Tu-95ms strategic bomber fly in formation above a church during a rehearsal for the flypast, which is part of a military parade marking the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Moscow, Russia on May 4, 2022. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)