Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Vladímir Volfovich Zhirinovsky (Russian: Влади́мир Во́льфович Жирино́вский; Almaty, Soviet Union; April 25, 1946-Moscow, Russia; April 6 April 2022) was a Russian ultranationalist politician, leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) from 1992 until his death.

He was a member of the State Duma since 1993 and leader of the LDPR parliamentary group from 1993 to 2000 and from 2011 to 2022.

He was deputy chairman of the State Duma from 2000 to 2001. He also worked as a delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1996 to 2008. During his lifetime, Zhirinovsky was also a candidate in all Russian presidential elections except 2004.

He was known for many controversies, including for defending Russia's military actions against the West.

Biography

He was born in Almaty, the Kazakh capital (at that time a Soviet republic). In July 1964, he moved to Moscow, where he began his studies at the Department of Turkish Studies at the Institute of Asian and African Studies of Moscow State University (MGU), from which he graduated in 1969. After this, he enlisted in military service in Tbilisi during the early part of the 1970s. He would later study law and work in various positions in state committees and unions. In 1998 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the MGU. Although he participated in certain underground reformist groups, he did not play a large role in Soviet political development during the 1980s. While he considered participating in politics, his attempt nomination for Popular Deputy in 1989 was quickly abandoned.

In 1990 he co-founded the Liberal Democratic Party, which he said was the first opposition party in the Soviet Union. He won 8% of the vote in the 1991 presidential election.

After the success in the 2003 parliamentary elections in which his party came in third place, he announced that he would face Vladimir Putin in the 2004 presidential elections, retiring after the competition. In the 2007 legislative elections, his party remained in third position in number of seats.

He ran for president six times: in 1991, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2018.

He died on April 6, 2022 after a long illness resulting from complications of COVID-19.

Political thought

He advocated alliances between the former Soviet republics with the ultimate goal of their reintegration into the Union. He made statements in favor of the recovery of Alaska through military force, as well as proposed the occupation of Iran and the entire Middle East, as he said, to impose peace and end terrorism once and for all. He also proposed He built large fans with which to expel nuclear waste from Russia to the Baltic republics and encouraged the use of nuclear weapons against potential adversaries. He was known for his anti-Semitic statements in public. He declared his hatred of the people of the North Caucasus and Central Asia on Russian state TV in October 2013.

According to Spanish anti-corruption prosecutor José Grinda, "organized crime in the Russian Federation becomes part of the political power structure, being especially evident in Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party. The criminals were elected deputies to the Russian Parliament by the Liberal Party and could rely on their parliamentary immunity, preventing the action of the Russian police and justice. The last example of this tactic could have been that of Lugovói.

Zhirinovski publicly supported the Catalan nationalists, even inviting Carles Puigdemont to Russia as political asylum.