Residents in Mysky were stunned after their normally brown snow turned white.
Bizarre on Female First
In a video that has gone viral on social media, a Russian woman can be seen brushing her hand along a snow bank in the former coal-mining town in Siberia.
What sticks to her hand is not snow, but a coating of paint, which had been used to make the ash-hued colour she's used to.
The unnamed woman told the Moscow Times: ''You can see the stains. It even sticks.''
Coal factories - which was once lucrative production in Russia but ended due to environmental effects - released black dust into the air which mixes with moisture and resulted in falling black snow.
Authorities have been accused of using ''modern technology'' to cover up the dark snow with white paint.
Town official Dmitry Ivanov has apologised - and said those who were responsible for the painting have been punished.