Attention peoples!

Aleksandr Orlov (wet) and factot­um Sergej (with steamed glasses)

Meet the Gentry: Aleksandr Orlov, here seen with his devoted side-kick, Sergej, enjoy­ing the splend­our of his bub­bly jac­uzzy bath. Orlov may seem like a meme all of his own. Brows­ing around his ever-expand­ing homepage, now includ­ing the vil­lage of Meerkovo http://meerkovo.comparethemarket.com/meerkovo ,
one cer­tainly can­not help but notice the way his pop­ular­ity has soared bey­ond all expect­a­tions of his ori­gin­al invent­ors. So, when will there be a full vari­ety of meerkat dolls on sale, now that Aleksandr’s bio­graphy, A Simples Life, has sold so well? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1325327/Orlov-fictional-meerkat-writes-secretly-ghosted-best-seller.html
(here’s The Guard­i­an’s take on that issue: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/01/year-2010-books-bestseller-chart)
The Ger­mans seem to think him one of those examples of that ever-elu­sive cat­egory “Brit­ish humour”: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/britischer-humor-ein-erdmaennchen-raeumt-ab‑1.1034999
Yet there is sound eco­nom­ic­al suc­cess hid­den in those furry whiskers, as Har­rods found out: http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/top-stories/427603/compare-the-meerkat-toy-sold-out 
For all his intense, almost pain­ful indi­vidu­al­ism, Orlov is soundly based on dec­ades of West­ern ste­reo­typ­ing of Rus­si­ans in exile.
And yes, he’s fluffy!