Total Darkness: Russian Capital Celebrates 'Earth Hour'

The Kremlin, along with approximately 300 buildings in central Moscow, will shut off its lights as part of the annual Earth Hour campaign to help raise money for local environmental projects on March 19. The lights are set to be turned on again in an hour.

Other famous Moscow buildings to take part in the Earth Hour campaign included St. Basil's Cathedral, the GUM Department Store, the Government House of the Russian Federation, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Moscow State University and the Russian State Duma.

The international environmental campaign Earth Hour started in Moscow and St. Petersburg with a minute of silence to commemorate passengers of the FlyDubai plane killed in the crash earlier on Saturday. The FlyDubai Boeing 737-800 plane coming from Dubai crashed at about 03:50 Moscow time (00:50 GMT) on Saturday while attempting to land amid poor weather conditions at the Rostov-on-Don Airport (ROV).

The Earth Hour is a global initiative urging all people worldwide to turn off the lights and electrical appliances for one hour as a sign of respect to our planet and its future.