A St. Petersburg jewelry company will display a 16.38-kilogram (36-pound) golden bust of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and later use the gold to make heart-shaped pendants, a local Internet portal online812.ru reported on Thursday, citing the company’s spokeswoman.
The bust will go on display soon and a month later the pendants will go on sale at company stores, so anyone can get a “piece of Putin,” Anna Tolstykh, the spokeswoman of the 585 jeweler company, said.
Profits from the sale will be donated to the fight against children's cancer, she said.
Putin was chosen for the campaign because in 2005 he initiated construction of the Cancer and Immunology Research Medical Center in Moscow, Tolstykh said.
The spokeswoman said the company was not pursuing any political goals.
"We are only pursuing good intentions,” she said.
Russia will be electing its next president on March 4. Vladimir Putin is running for presidency after two terms in the Kremlin in 2000-2008.
