Sardana Avksentyeva swept to power as mayor of Russia’s diamond capital in September.
Angelina Sadovnikova, then 11, came across the mummified Pleistocene rodent in a cavity left by woolly mammoth tusk diggers.
In this exclusive report, Yakutian photographer Nariyana Romanova takes us on a magical journey through her kingdom of ice.
But how did they get to landlocked Kurgan region, 2,400 kilometres from the nearest ocean?
Project to be unveiled at 4th Eastern Economic Forum next month and likely to contain laboratories sunk into the permafrost.
The unique discovery was three or four years old when it died at least 20,000 years ago.
Born-again beasts will roam in Ice Age Park in Yakutia, said Aisen Nikolaev, head of Yakutia region.