A skier sets off from the peak of Mount Aigba in the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, around 31 miles from Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, on Feb. 13.

A brand new gondola system extends above the clouds on the plateau of Rosa Khutor, a venue for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics near Sochi on Feb. 13.

A skier sets off from the peak of Mount Aigba in the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, around 31 miles from Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, on Feb. 13.

International Space Station expedition 40/41 crew members, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman (right) of the United States, Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev (center) and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst (left) of Germany, practice in Star City, outside Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 23, 2013.

Maxim Suraev (left) and Reid Wiseman gather wood to build a shelter.

(From left) Maxim Suraev, Gregory Wiseman and Alexander Gerst stand by their shelter.

A group of Russian citizens hold hands after crossing the border from Syria at Al-Masnaa, Lebanon, on Jan. 22.

A Russian child evacuated from Damascus sits in a bus as their convoy arrives at the Masna'a border crossing between Lebanon and Syria in the eastern Bekaa region of Lebanon on Jan. 22.

A group of Russian citizens ride a bus shortly after crossing the border from Syria into Lebanon at the Masna'a border crossing in Lebanon, on Jan. 22. Some 80 Russian citizens crossed into Lebanon as Moscow began evacuating some of the tens of thousands of Russians who live in Syria.

A Syrian man holds his sister after they fled their home near Damascus, as they walk past Russian nationals sitting in a bus who have been evacuated from Damascus during their arrival at the Lebanese Masna'a border point in eastern Bekaa on Jan. 22.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a Christmas eve service in an Orthodox Monastery in the south Russian city of Sochi Jan 7. The head of Russia's dominant church urged its citizens to adopt children, speaking in a Russian Orthodox Christmas address on Monday after President Vladimir Putin signed a controversial law barring Americans from adopting Russian children.

Plosky Tolbachnik volcano erupts in Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Jan. 6, 2013.

Russian-speaking Israelis dance to Russian pop beats at the Soho nightclub in Tel Aviv on March 9, 2012. The club caters to the Russian-speaking immigrant community, featuring hired dancers and extravagant decorations rarely seen in informal Israel.

Russian-speaking immigrants drink vodka during a Russian folk music festival at the Gan HaShlosha national park near the northern Israeli Town of Beit Shean on May 11, 2012. About 2,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union attended the two-day festival, singing Russian standards, barbecuing and drinking vodka.

Two immigrants from the Ural region of the former Soviet Union rinse off after bathing in the Mediterranean Sea in the early morning, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Dec. 4, 2012. Many Soviet immigrants gather at the beach for a traditional winter dip, the closest substitute to the freezing waters of the former Soviet Union.

Alexandra Bahman, who emigrated to Israel from Moldova in 2006, sits in her bedroom with her cat on July. 6, 2012. Bahman left Moldova with the carpet and photos that now decorate her bedroom walls, in Ashdod, Israel. Ashdod is heavily populated by immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

A choir practices in a government-funded elderly care facility catering to Russian-speaking immigrants in Ashdod, southern Israel, on Nov. 4, 2012. The choir sings Russian standards and Israeli folk songs translated into Russian.

Elderly immigrants from the former Soviet Union play chess in a public park in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Chess is a popular sport in Israel's Russian-speaking community, and the world's second-best chess master, Belarusian-born Boris Gelfand, lives in Israel on Nov. 15, 2012 . Israel has one of the world's largest Russian-speaking communities outside the former Soviet Union, and the immigrants' tenacious clinging to their old way of life has transformed the Jewish state.

Gymnasts from Russian-speaking immigrant families warm up at a gymnastics competition organized for Israel's immigrant community, in the southern resort city of Eilat on Nov. 9, 2012. Most of Israel's Olympic gymnasts are immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

An employee of the Mizra pork factory poses with a pig's head in a refrigerated warehouse in Kibbutz Mizra, northern Israel, on Dec. 6, 2012. The million-strong Soviet immigrant community has increased customer demand for pork in the country, a non-kosher food rarely eaten by Israeli Jews.

Russian-speaking immigrants gather for a Russian folk music festival at the Gan HaShlosha national park near the northern Israeli Town of Beit Shean on May. 11, 2012. About 2,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union attended the two-day festival, singing Russian standards, barbecuing and drinking vodka.

Rescuers work where a plane skidded off the runway at Vnukovo airport in Moscow on Saturday, Dec. 29. The Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Moscow-based Red Wings broke into pieces and caught fire, killing several people.

A dog stands under trees covered with heavy hoarfrost and snow on a bank of the frozen Yenisei River at air temperature about -14.8 degrees Fahrenheit, some 32 miles south of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, on Dec. 19.

A woman walks in the freezing outdoors in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, about 1740 miles east of Moscow, on Dec. 19. The temperatures in Novosibirsk reached -20F today, but due to high humidity and strong cold wind, weather experts said it would feel more like -47F.

A snow plough removes snow from the road to the village of Fuerggli near St. Margrethenberg, Switzerland, on Dec. 19.

A woman on a skitour crosses the Grat towards the Chemi, a little more than a mile above sea level, above Mastrils in the Rhinevalley, Switzerland, on Dec. 19.