Illumination of the "elephant's foot" seems to mainly come from just left of the camera, given its shadow on the background. So he probably stood there for a while, panning over it with his flashlight. And then he walked over, and stood next to it. But he was a little careless with the flashlight, and hit the camera some.

Also, the right side of the "elephant's foot" does seem to be flaming.

Using a timer makes it not a selfie in my book.

I propose that photographer must a) be the primary subject of the photo, b) be engaged with the camera in some way, in order to categorize as a selfie.

So yeah, pretty sure this isn't a selfie. Also this makes me want to play the new Metro.

In a traditional selfie, when you move, your arm moves with you and your self remains the center focus of the shot. A drone selfie acts in a similar way. A timed shot on the other hand will always capture a specific scene, whether you are in it or not.

Arguably Eschers lithograph "Hand with Reflecting Sphere" does qualify, but Korneyevs picture doesn't.

In photography that's a technique called 'light painting'. Usually done deliberately but I had to resort to it once on a shoot when the flash units wouldn't fire; I borrowed a bicycle headlight.