Hundreds of years ago, the Cossacks were at the forefront of the conquest of Siberia; now the heritage passes to a new generation.
Anastasia Strashevskaya, 18, from Novosibirsk vows to keep studying as she qualifies for casting for the Miss Russia pageant.
Pro-Vladimir Putin demos one year on from the Kiev uprising.
Yakutsk, currently hosting the Children of Asia International sports games was forced to halt arrivals and departures.
Young boys scream in pain and terror as they are shown being struck repeatedly with a belt by a vicious female 'carer'.
In a sign of the times, children are taught 'to love the motherland' after the return of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia.
Yana Dobrovolskaya ate carrots and cottage cheese, then stretched herself on horizontal bars, to gain the height needed to enter pageant.
American chains Hilton and Marriott among the venues that turned away exiled former billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky's political movement.
Amur tigress orphaned in 2012 and released after rehabilitation a year later pictured with her cubs in Bastak Nature Reserve.
Russian officials claimed little orphan Maxim Kuzmin suffered an appalling death after being adopted to the US.