Russian schoolboy sets up “office” in swamp, gets invited to Kyrgyzstan by country's Culture Ministry

Igor Nazarov, the hero of popular Internet meme “schoolboy in a swamp,” has arrived in Kyrgyzstan at the invitation of the country’s Ministry of Culture.

The Chelyabinsk school boy recently participated in a competition, organized by online community Kak ya vstretil stolbnyak, to win 15,000 rubles (approximately $232) to fund a trip to Kyrgyzstan. His project involved setting up a photo shoot within a literal swamp.

In his pictures, Nazarov is dressed in a suit and seated at a desk with a laptop on it in the middle of a wetland.

Though Nazarov took only second place in the competition, his photograph gained instant popularity and his Facebook fans decided to pool together to help him finance his trip. The community endeavor proved unnecessary, however, because the schoolboy was shortly thereafter offered the opportunity to visit Kyrgyzstan by none other than the country’s Ministry of Culture, which invited him to attend nomad horse racing festival Vsemirnye igry kochevnikov, and has paid for his transport, food, and accommodation.

“Since the boy wanted to come to our country, we have decided to show it to him,” said Azamat Djamankulov, director of the tourism department of Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Culture.

Nazarov told local journalists that he was looking forward to his trip. “Even though I live in the Urals, I am far from the mountains, and such mountains as you [have in Kyrgyzstan], I have not seen [anywhere]. Their tops are covered with snow; rivers with clean water run at their feet. It is very nice.”