In the 19th century, Mekong Bobtails were among the royal cats given to Russian Emperor Nicholas II by Chulalongkorn, the king of Siam. The majority of the 200 royal cats gifted by Chulalongkorn had kinked tails resembling those of the modern-day Mekong Bobtail. Other bobtail cats from Southeast Asia were also imported into Russia. The breed is considered to have been developed in Russia and continued to be experimentally developed there, being bred with other bobtail cats, and possibly also with Siamese cats. The breed started to become more widely known in the 1980s, and in December 1994, a breed standard was drawn up by O. S. Mironova, a Russian felinologist. It was recognized by the World Cat Federation in August 2004, and at that time its name was changed from 'Thai Bobtail' to 'Mekong Bobtail'.