Ladies and gents, friends of our Offbeat News section, winter has made its triumphant return to certain parts of Russia turning roads into ice rinks.

Tomsk, one of the oldest towns in Siberia, which you know, is the coldest permanently inhabited place on earth, had a snowfall on Wednesday and the cameras came out to record all the mishaps – and there were plenty going on.

Even the regional governor Sergei Zhvachkin wasn’t immune as his Mercedes-Benz S-Class was involved in not one, but two separate ice-related accidents in the span of an hour (!) forcing him to cut short a visit to neighboring towns, according to local reports (see pictures below).

Authorities blamed the harsh weather conditions that led to the creation of black ice and the fact that many drivers are still using summer tires.

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