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DiCaprio invited to Russia's Yakutia after getting homemade Oscar from Russian fans

Leonardo DiCaprio received the Oscar statuette Yakutia residents made for him in mid-March

© EPA/PAUL BUCK

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YAKUTSK, March 22. /TASS/. Yegor Borisov, the head of the east Siberian republic of Yakutia, has invited Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio to visit the republic after its residents made an Oscar statuette for the actor, a local official said on Tuesday.

"The actor has received an invitation to visit our republic at any time," Vladimir Vasilyev, the republic’s external relations minister, told TASS

Some 150 Yakutia’s women donated 1.5 kilograms of silver to make the statuette for DiCaprio who won the Best Actor Academy award for starring in "The Revenant."

The metal was cast into the shape of a man holding a Choron, the local language name for a three-legged goblet "symbolizing peace and expressing people’s love for the actor".

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The actor received the statuette in mid-March and published its picture on his Instagram page.

"Thank you to the people of Yakutia for this wonderful gift, especially all of the women who gathered and donated the materials that went into creating the statue," DiCaprio said.

"As they wrote in their letter, Yakutia is home to the coldest inhabited place not only in Russia, but also on Earth - and the region is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Rising temperatures pose a major threat to its people, their way of life and their natural habitat," said DiCaprio, a longtime environmental activist.

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