While some people prefer staying at home wrapped in a blanket with a mug of hot tea (or something stronger) when it gets cold, Russians of all ages head outside. You can find them dog-sledding, swimming, cycling, fishing and taking part in all kinds of celebrations and flash mobs in Sputnik's photo gallery.
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© Sputnik / Maxim Blinov
A girl next to a snow figure at the “Snowmen Art Battle” in the Moscow Palace of Young Pioneers at Vorobyovy Gory in Moscow, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Maksim Bogodvid
Participants at "SunnyFEST," a festival of creative sleds in Mamadysh, the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia.
Winter swimming enthusiasts warm up on the bank of the Yenisei River ahead of their weekly bathing session, with the air temperature at about minus 26 degrees Celsius (-14.8 degrees Fahrenheit), in the Siberian town of Divnogorsk, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Nina Zotina
Tourists at the "Gorki Gorod" ski resort in Sochi, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Ramil Sitdikov
A woman takes an ice water dip as part of the Orthodox Epiphany celebration in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park.
Competitors in a regional ice climbing and winter rock climbing championship at the "Stolby" (Rock Pillars) national nature reserve, with the air temperature at about minus 18 degrees Celsius (-0.4 degrees Fahrenheit), outside Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Evgeny Biyatov
Husky dogs in sleds at the “On the way with Huskies,” a rehabilitation and educational project for children and adolescents with disabilities in Sokolniki Park, Moscow, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Aleksandr Kondratuk
Girls celebrating Orthodox Christmas yuletide and carol singing in the village of Petrovskoe in Chelyabinsk Region, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Evgeny Yepanchintsev
Tourists at the "Vysokogorie" sports complex in Chita Region, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Iliya Pitalev
A man participates in Epiphany bathing in the Holy Trinity Gerasimov-Boldin Monastery in Smolensk Region, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Vladimir Astapkovich
A fisherman on the Moscow river on a frosty day (the air temperature dropped to -27 degrees Celsius).
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© Sputnik / Iliya Pitalev
Visitors at the opening of a skating rink on Red Square in Moscow, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Oleg Smyslov
People paint the wall of the snow fortress in the city of Rybinsk, Russia.
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© AP Photo / Lyudmila Chikina
A woman attends a traditional mass skiing competition, "Ski-track of Russia" in Yakhroma, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Moscow, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Vladimir Astapkovich
Muscovites sliding down an ice hill on Manezh Square during the "Journey to Christmas" festival.
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© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresenskiy
A flash mob at the "EMERCOM of Russia - for a healthy lifestyle!" event in Gorky Park, Moscow, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Vitaliy Ankov
An officer's wife poses for a photo after taking the plunge in an ice hole during the celebration of Orthodox Epiphany by the Pacific fleet military men and their families at the Amur Bay in Vladivostok, Russia.
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© Sputnik / Evgenya Novozhenina
A participant in the Second Winter Bicycle Parade near Red Square in Moscow, Russia.
