A cat who faced death before being rescued from a garbage processing machine has now been made deputy minister of animal protection.

Sick owners had tied up the cat in Russia in a sack tightly tied by a string, in a bid to make sure it didn't escape.

However, the cat was saved by eagle-eyed operative Mikhail Tukashin a Christmas act of kindness, and it was all caught on CCTV.

Shortly after the incident, which took place in the Ulyanovsk region, the cat went viral.

Now the regional government has announced the rescued animal is appointed an honorary deputy minister for protection of the animal world.

A competition is also underway to name the new feline state official.

“We’re taking the cat to our ministry and all employees will take responsibility for it,” said environment minister Gulnara Rakhmatulina.

The newly promoted animal has already commandeered his own chair in the office – in fact several.

Rakhmatulina hit out at the unknown owners who got rid of the animal in such a cruel manner.

“If you can’t keep an animal at home, you can always give it away to a shelter,” she told them.

The cat’s saviour Mikhail said: “People can't do that.

“Animals feel everything, they are alive, they are afraid, scared.”

The frightened cat had probably spent 12 hours in the sack after being thrown in the garbage.

“The cat wasn’t meowing and the bag did not move,” he said.

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  Shy cat who was kept in a cage looks so much happier after being adopted

“I needed to cut the bag to screen it for metals. I was just doing my job….

“I am immensely glad that I managed to save him.

“Anyone in my position would do the same. But the cat was lucky too.”

When he opened the sack the cat popped its head out.

The animal was ‘chubby, clean and well-groomed’ without a scratch.

The incident was on 21 December at the Gorkomkhoz company in Ulyanovsk, birthplace of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union.

The garbage company’s director Igor Perfilyev said: "The cruelty of people is surprising.

“A little more and the sack with the cat would have gone into the separator.

“Fortunately, the animal was not hurt.

“But he is very scared.”

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