An ice sculptor with a chainsaw competes in the “furious Saw: Ice hour masterpiece” contest at the opening of the Snow Kingdom MultiGRAD in Kuzminki Park.

After a week of temperatures of below minus 20 degrees Centigrade, Moscow’s official Ded Moroz, or Father Frost, launches the city’s forthcoming New Year celebrations after arriving at Gorky Park on an open top bus.

A man wearing an egg for a head and signs reading “The Eggman is just walking” and “The Eggman does not go to unauthorised rallies” walks past police in Lubyanka Square at an unauthorised opposition rally to mark a year of protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Pussy Riot supporter refused entry to Moscow City Court precincts stares in through security bars from outside. Supporters and opponents of band members Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova demonstrated outside the court as the three appealed against their two-year jail sentence for their performance in the Christ The Saviour Cathedral. The appeal was postponed until October 10th after Samutsevich fired her lawyer.

A doll dressed as a member of Pussy Riot with a crown of barbed wire in front of a Russian flag at an opposition rally two days after band members were sentenced to two years in prison for their performance inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Several hundred opposition demonstrators gathered near the Russian government White House to mark the 21st anniversary of the attempted coup in 1991 by Communist hardliners that led to the eventual break-up of the Soviet Union.