Moscow: Artificial snow has been placed in Red Square to cheer up holiday crowds as Russia is expected to see its warmest December on record.

Passers-by were stunned to see snowdrifts on Red Square and Tverskaya Street, Moscow's main road, over the weekend as the City Hall brought in artificial snow to the city centre, which will be shut down for traffic for the next eight days during new year's and Orthodox Christmas celebrations.

Ivan Demidov, director of the Zaryadye Park just next to Red Square, said that they decided to use artificial snow "to bring the spirit of new year to Muscovites" and boasted about hosting "the first permanent snowdrift in Moscow".

Moscow has been 6 degrees warmer than the monthly average this December. It started to snow on Monday but temperatures were expected to rise again, and it New Year's Eve was predicted to break an all-time high of 5C. Moscow's many parks and forests are snowless and empty, without the usual cross-country skiers riding in the woods or children sledding down iced slopes.