Photos of the Week: Nov. 21-27, 2009

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin speaking at a congress of the United Russia party in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, Nov. 21.

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin talking in a restaurant in St. Petersburg, Saturday, Nov. 21. While Putin expressed gratitude towards United Russia at the party's congress last weekend, Medvedev had stern words to deliver.

A boy kissing the body of Father Daniil Sysoyev in his church on Sunday, Nov. 22, as other mourners pay their respects. Sysoyev, an outspoken missionary who criticized Islam and communism, was gunned down by a masked assailant in his St. Thomas Church after an evening service Thursday, Nov. 19.

A brown bear riding a motorcycle during a circus performance in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk on Sunday, Nov. 22.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visiting a recently built residential area in Kolpino near St. Petersburg, Monday, Nov. 23.

Human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina presenting a poster with a photo of her slain Chechen colleague Natalya Estemirova to President Dmitry Medvedev during a meeting in the Kremlin, Monday, Nov. 23. The poster reads: Natalya Estemirova, killed July 15, 2009. Estemirova, a prominent human rights advocate, was kidnapped and killed in Chechnya.

The statue towering over the entrance to the All-Russia Exhibition Center reflected in a puddle on Tuesday, Nov. 24. The center’s most famous statue — Vera Mukhina’s “The Worker and the Collective Farm Girl” — is expected to be returned on Dec. 3. The 24.5-meter-high statue has been under repair since 2003.

President Dmitry Medvedev attending a commission on Russian economic modernization and technological development at Moscow State University Wednesday, Nov. 25.

Alexander Girev, 51, smiling as workers unload furniture from a truck in the village of Topchikha, 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the regional center Barnaul, Wednesday, Nov. 25. Girev received an apartment in a new block of flats for free under a local welfare program after waiting for his turn for over 30 years. Girev spent the whole of his working life as a blacksmith at a local collective farm

A woman browsing and choosing some new reading materials at a second-hand book stand on Novy Arbat.

A worker preparing holiday decorations on a rooftop near Hotel Moskva as the city gets ready for New Year’s. A City Hall source told Interfax that decorations must be up on central buildings and shop windows by Dec. 1.

People strolling during a break in the rain Wednesday, Nov. 25, on Red Square, while workers decorate Moscow’s main New Year’s tree, which is artificial. A second, real tree will be erected later in December on the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square. The city’s main skating rink is expected to open on Red Square on Dec. 3.

Workers removing the scaffolding around Vera Mukhina's "The Worker and the Collective Farm Girl" on Thursday, Nov. 26, after a six-year restoration project.

A relief based on sketches by Vera Mukhina waiting to be added to the Mukhina Museum, background, at the All-Russia Exhibition Center.