A woman swigs from bottles of rum and coke before entering the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California April 12, 2015. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Ukraine's Hanna Antonova competes during the 2015 World Pole Dance Championships held in Beijing, Sunday, April 12, 2015. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Actress Brittany Snow takes a selfie with a fan at The 2015 MTV Movie Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on April 12, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.

A man rows a boat on the Dal Lake as a woman holds an umbrella during snowfall in Srinagar February 19, 2015. (Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

Horse Racing – Crabbie's Grand National Festival – Aintree Racecourse April 10, 2015: Racegoers react during the 17.15 Weatherbys Wealth Management Champion Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race. (Photo by Andrew Boyers/Reuters)

Brett Throckmorten of Barnes Bullets shows Logan Wingo how to sight down an electronic rifle in the trade booth area during the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, April 11, 2015. (Photo by Harrison McClary/Reuters)

A general view of the residential area is pictured during dusk at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, April 5, 2015. Jodhpur, also known as the blue city in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan, which residents say originally, was used to show where the highest caste of priestly Hindus live, who wanted to set them apart from the rest of the population. Later the rest of the population followed suit. Another reason for the city to be blue is to keep the buildings cool during the summers, local residents said. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)