Putin is a decade late and lots of rubles short. The Koreans have been working with Russians in Yakutst for sometime now collecting tissue from existing wooly mammoths that have been frozen intact for eons. The most famous of the mammoths is the baby “Buttercup” whom I believe we discussed here a long time ago.
The Koreans are actively cloning dogs and cattle and are experts in the procedures. The scientist on the video showed his work and advised that cloning a mammoth would be very hard. The cloned egg would be implanted in a female asian elephant.
The interesting video is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmlpSOHc5A4
For the record, my friend in california called me yesterday to tell of his trip to Alaska and the Taiga and the Russian taiga and the active quest for wooly mammoth DNA.
For ten years I have secreted away a box containing fossil mammoth ivory I intended to make jewelry from. I got it out and started messing with it today. It is very easy to work and a beautiful piece was polished up in just a few minutes. I think I’m goig to be rich!
Making 19th century billiard balls out of mammoth ivory was not unheard of.