Kaleidoscope of Russian Life

A man paints a fur coat wore by an animal rights activist with ketchup symbolizing blood during an Anti-fur march in St.Petersburg. Animal rights activists protest against the slaying of animals for the fur trade.

A brightly painted car is parked along a snowy street in Moscow, Russia, on Monday. Light snowfall hit Moscow this morning, testing the city's winter readiness.

A municipal worker puts the final touches to an artificial New Year tree at the Red Square in Moscow. New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, and is followed by the Orthodox Christmas.

An employee hand paints glass Christmas and New Year decorations at the "Biryusinka" toy factory in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. The factory, founded in 1942, produces decorative glass spheres, which can be found on Christmas trees all over the country and in Moscow's Kremlin in particular, during the festive season.

U.S. astronaut Thomas Marshburn, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield take part in a theory exam at the Russian cosmonaut training centre at Star City, outside Moscow. The three-man crew is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in December.

Airborne forces training in Omsk Region. Troops at a shooting range of the Airborne Forces Training Center 242 as female contract soldiers go through an intensive training program.

China's Guangdong Acrobatic Troupe bring Swan Lake production to Moscow.

Paying last respects to writer Boris Strugatsky at a ceremony in St. Petersburg.

Christopher 'Chris' Gibson-Smith, chairman of the London Stock Exchange Group Plc, second left, and Ivan Tavrin, chief executive officer of OAO MegaFon, third right, applaud during the company's initial public offering (IPO) launch at the London Stock Exchange Group Plc's (LSE) headquarters in London. OAO MegaFon, Russia's second-largest mobile-phone operator, raised $1.7 billion in the biggest initial offering by a company from the country in three years, pricing the sale at the low end of its target.

Syrian opposition member Hassan Abdul-Azim gestures as he speaks to reporters outside the Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow, Russia. Abdul-Azim and other opposition members held talks with Russian diplomats to discuss ways of settling the Syrian crisis.