People take photos during the Loy Krathong festival which is held as a symbolic apology to the goddess of the river in Chiang Mai, Thailand, November 19, 2021. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

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.

In a July 14, 1967 file photo, left, National Guardsmen make their way along Market Street in Newark, N.J, after an evening of deadly rioting and looting in what came to be known as the Newark riots. In a June 16, 2017 photo, right, an ambulance drives on the same block 50 years later. (Photo by AP Photo/File, left; Julio Cortez, right)

In this Wednesday, April 15, 2020 file photo, a motorcycle delivery man rides past a billboard urging people to stay home over the coronavirus pandemic in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Wealthier Western countries are considering how to ease lockdown restrictions and start taking gradual steps toward reviving business and daily life. But many developing countries, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, can hardly afford the luxury of any misstep. (Photo by Jon Gambrell/AP Photo/File)

In this October 6, 1976, file photo, a right-wing student, center foreground, draws his arm back to strike a captured and wounded leftist student being taken by police to an ambulance in during a student massacre in Bangkok, Thailand. This year’s anti-government protests are seeking new elections, a more democratic constitution and an end to intimidation of political activists. Their speeches have repeatedly highlighted the 1976 tragedy, piquing the interest of the current generation in what their forebears faced. (Photo by Neal Ulevich/AP Photo/File)

In this Sunday, March 31, 2019, file photo, Marc Marquez, of Spain, drives his motorcycle during the Moto GP race at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit in Argentina. The reigning MotoGP champion has dominated the Circuit of the Americas from the year it opened and the Repsol Honda rider comes back right back on top of the season standings in a chase for a sixth title in seven years. (Photo by Nicolas Aguilera/AP Photo/File)

An artist applies henna on the hand or a woman during the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, November 4, 2021. Millions of people across Asia are celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali, which symbolizes new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. (Photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo)

A person smokes marijuana as marijuana enthusiasts mark the informal annual cannabis holiday, 4/20 (four-twenty), corresponding to the numerical figure widely recognized within the cannabis subculture as a symbol for all things related to marijuana, in Hyde Park in London, Britain on April 20, 2023. (Photo by Maja Smiejkowska/Reuters)