“Michael Mathias Prechtl (April 26, 1926, Amberg – March 19, 2003, Nuremberg) was a German artist, illustrator and cartoonist. He served as a soldier on the Eastern Front during World War II and spent 1945-49 as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union”. – Wikipedia

Photo: “Der Gestiefelte Kater (Puss in Boots)”, 1997. Artwork by Michael Mathias Prechtl

People in historical uniforms prepare for a parade at Red Square commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Red Army’s defence of Moscow during the second world war in Moscow, Russia on November 7, 2016. (Photo by Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS)

Canada's Yuri Nazarkin carves Star Wars character C-3PO (R) and R2-D2 for the ice sculpture festival in Liege, Belgium, November 13, 2015. (Photo by Eric Vidal/Reuters)

Demonstrators dance around a burning an effigy of the Russian President Vladimir Putin during an anti-war action in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday, March 27, 2022. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)

People take part in the celebrations of Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Vladivostok, Russia on May 9, 2023. (Photo by Tatiana Meel/Reuters)

North Korean women in colorful traditional dresses are surrounded by flower blossoms known as “Kimilsungia” as they wait to guide guests at a flower exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea, April 14, 2014. The flowers, named after Kim Il Sung, are on display to celebrate the late leader's official birth date of April 15, 1912. (Photo by David Guttenfelder/AP Photo)

The claws are out for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and Russia's Vladimir Putin – as cats now able to use a model of him as a scratching post. And moggies can also maul at Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose face also features on the new cat toys which are 1.5ft tall and cost £4,500. They are made from hessian rope, and 3D-printed faces are then attached to the posts, before they are handpainted. The toys took a team of artists 200 hours to finish. (Photo by The Pussycat Riot)

A man runs to help a woman as they attempt to shelter in a locked convenience store during heavy wind and rain as typhoon Maysak hits the Haeundae Beach area of Busan, South Korea, on September 3, 2020. Flights were grounded in South Korea and storm warnings issued on both sides of the Korean peninsula as a typhoon forecast to be one of the most powerful in years made its approach. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)