An artist has built a very unusual statue of Russian president, Vladimir Putin, with only chocolates.
Artist Gusev finishing the chocolate staute of Vladimir Putin
Nikita Gusev, an artist in the Russian city of St Petersburg has been working on the life-size sculpture as he prepares for a chocolate festival in the city.
According to Mirror Online, the Sculptor was commissioned to create the model of the president and claims chocolate is a perfect material for Putin as a work of art.
He said: "On one hand the chocolate is soft and malleable, on the other side and it can be very hard. It is very flexible, it can take any form.
"I think this material really suits him [Putin] because he is like that, in different situations he can be different, sometimes soft, sometimes hard."
Around 70 kilograms of chocolate were needed to make the sculpture, supplied by a local confectionery company.
Gusev who used photos of the Russian president in his work, said he would have preferred to have a real life model.
He said: "I used different emotions of his, different photographs from different angles to understand better.
"But if he was really here it would have been easier. I would have been able to come close, make measurements and use them,"
Gusev said he had previously made small sculptures of Stalin, Peter and Catherine the Great and Michael Jackson.
The idea of making a life-size sculpture of Putin came from Mikhail Lyubchenkov, organiser of the Chocolate Festival who remembered a chocolate sculpture of Pope Francis and wanted to do the same for Putin.
Gusev also made a life-size model of Putin's late labrador Connie.
Lyubchenkov says President Putin's statue will be the main attraction of St Petersburg Chocolate Festival but warned there will be no touching, licking or biting of any of the statues.
Festival organisers decided to offer Putin's statue to the president himself so it will be up to him whether he decides to taste it.