On Jan. 7, as Orthodox believers marked the birth of Jesus Christ, temperatures in Moscow hit a frigid minus 30 degrees Celsius – with the Emergency Situations Ministry warning residents that temperatures would drop as low as minus 35 degrees during the night.
The Christmas holiday and the sub-zero temperatures have created some contradictory pictures of Moscow and wider Russia this weekend: On the one hand, crowds of Russians attending warm, candlelit Christmas liturgies. On the other, the empty, eerily fogged streets of Moscow.
We bring you the best images from the freezing Christmas holiday.
