The statue in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk was built to honour two 19th Century figures - Abay Kunanbayev, a local writer and thinker, and Yevgeny Mikhaelis, a Russian scientist and pro-democracy activist who was exiled to eastern Kazakhstan. But it immediately attracted the scorn of locals who - according to Tengri News website - took to social media to point out that the figures looked like they were taking a selfie. Other people pointed out their similarity to hobbits, said the news website Nur.kz