Ashgabat: A Marble Oasis in the Turkmen Desert

Indigenous and minority communities have made an effort to revive their ancestral traditions of greeting the new year since the Soviet collapse.

Russia in 2025 was shaped by extremes of weather, war and political control and the moments of uneasy normality that persisted alongside them.

Bulatov was a leading figure of the Soviet pop art scene, bending figurative imagery with slogans and text to challenge state propaganda.

Although officials and the Russian Orthodox Church discourage it, many Muscovites celebrated the holiday anyway.