I can’t help but feel that the beleaguered residents of Siberian city Barnaul are swapping one evil for another. They’re so frustrated by continued corruption scandals that they don’t want to be politically represented by human beings anymore. Instead they’d prefer to be led by feline frontrunner Barsik, who is a mere 18-months old – that's still only 22 years-old in human years, quite young to be a mayoral candidate.

In a recent poll, 91 per cent of Barnaul’s residents agreed that they’d like to see the cat elected, an aftershock of swindling and nepostism besieging the Siberian city, along with accusations of politicians selling off public land to family members and embezzling money. If true, then that will of course have to go down in the book as "devious behaviour carried out by human beings".

However, cats rightly enjoy a reputation as being the most underhand, selfish creatures to walk this corrupt planet and to that end, the cute-ification of our feline friends means that Tumblr has a lot to answer for.

If Barsik the cat was in control of the Siberian city Barnaul, there is absolutely no doubt that he would manipulate each and every aspect of his role to make it work better for him. Cats are the Patrick Batemans of the animal kingdom – beautiful, preened sociopaths with no interest in anything but the murder of weaker creatures, eating forever (even if it means denying another food) and their own eternal comfort on furniture that doesn’t belong to them.

Should a creature like this take control of a city and oversee the welfare of its people? The answer is an emphatic no – everyone will perish and meet their makers in the uncomfortable knowledge that 91 per cent of them voted for certain death, to be ruled by a 18-month old cat more corrupt than any politician.