Runners laugh off the biting cold

Many of the runners were wearing just light sports kit or fancy dress.

Dubbed the "world's coldest run" by Russian Centre TV, the annual Orthodox Christmas event is the brainchild of the city's Walrus Club - whose hobbies include winter dips in local frozen lakes.

One hardy runner said he was happy to strip off and run around in the freezing conditions.

A half-naked Valeriy Salnikov told the TV: "Just look at the weather! You run and test yourself. We should celebrate Christmas in our natural state."

"It's a sporting Christmas" says this Santa

One Santa Claus, aka runner Yevgeniy Zhitkov, said: "Most people spend Christmas at home around the table watching television, but we traditionally come out to run. It's a sporting Christmas and a sporting Father Christmas."

According to local people, -25C is a little chilly, but not a big freeze. Everyone who turned up for post-race celebrations in Omsk's town centre agreed though that it was a bit cold for just standing around.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaus abroad.