Photo of the Day

June 19, 2012: A worker hanging from the Hotel National on Monday. The hotel, which opened in 1903, has long been a favorite because of its proximity to the Kremlin.

June 18, 2012: With virtually all-day sunshine and temperatures in the neighborhood of 25 degrees Celsius, Sunday was superb for catching some rays, although this man relaxing on Manezh Square might be going just a bit beyond the pale.

June 25, 2012: Cossacks performing a traditional dance with sabers during this weekend's Mansky tourist festival near Mana, a settlement about 75 kilometers east of Krasnoyarsk. The festival has long been a summer draw for nature lovers.

June 26, 2012: A baby riding in the arms of her father, an army lieutenant, as they descend into the Teatralnaya metro station on Monday.

June 27, 2012: Artists putting the final touches Tuesday on a vast picture composed of coffee beans in Moscow's Gorky Park. Organizers claim that at 30 square meters, the picture is the biggest in the world to be made of coffee beans.

June 28, 2012: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez welcoming his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, to Caracas on Tuesday.

Look-alikes of the world, unite! Heeding the call are two Josef Stalins, a pair of Lenins, one Leonid Brezhnev and a newbie, Alexander Pushkin.

July 2, 2012: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, walking toward Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, at the start of talks on Syria in Geneva on Saturday.

Swans exhibiting Olympic spirit Monday by showing off their synchronized-swimming skills.

July 3, 2012: Belarussian servicemen taking part in a military parade during celebrations marking Independence Day in Minsk on Tuesday.

People taking advantage of the fine weather Thursday to plant flowers in front of the main entrance to the All-Russia Exhibition Center. Flower lovers can also enjoy displays by more than 50 florists and landscape designers at the first Moscow International Flower Show, which runs through Sunday at Gorky Park.