Shootings, Elections and Drills: Russia's September in Photos

A street vendor sells apples in the Siberian city of Omsk. Seen in the distance is a campaign billboard promoting the ruling, pro-Kremlin United Russia party in the run-up to the 2021 Russian State Duma elections.

A Russian emergencies worker in protective gear disinfects Kievsky railway station in Moscow.

Troops from Russia's Western Military District take part in Zapad-2021 military drills in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The drills, carried out with Belarus, were designed to demonstrate Russia's capability and willingness to defend its interests in its neighbor to the west.

Russian Baltic Fleet troops carry out coastal defense exercises during Zapad-2021 at the Khmelevka training range, Kaliningrad region.

Voters at a polling station in Moscow during the State Duma elections on Sept. 19.

The State Duma elections were marred by widespread reports of ballot stuffing and electoral fraud.

Russia's Communist Party staged a rally against the election results on Moscow's Pushkinskaya Square.

Several Communist Party candidates who held strong leads in paper voting saw those leads vanish in favor of United Russia candidates once e-voting results came in, sparking uproar among Russia's opposition.

A view of Novodevichy Convent in Moscow as the leaves begin to turn.

Students lay flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the university campus in Perm on Sept. 21, where a gunman killed six people there before being detained the day before.

The shooting at Perm State University stunned the city located in Russia's Urals region.

The past month was Moscow's coldest September so far this century, with precipitation also above the norm.