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Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky (Template:Lang-ru, born 25 April 1946) is a Russian politician, deputy and vice-chairman of the State Duma (the Russian parliament), an honoured lawyer of the Russian Federation, and holder of an academic degree, namely Doctor of Philosophy. Zhirinovsky is the founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), the third largest party in the Duma by number of votes. He is also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Biography

Zhirinovsky was born in Alma-Ata, the former capital of Kazakhstan, a Soviet Republic at that time. In July 1964, Zhirinovsky moved from Alma-Ata to Moscow, where he began his studies at the Moscow State University, studying several languages, specifically Turkish. In the 1980s, he began to study law.

In 1990, Zhirinovsky co-founded the Liberal Democratic Party, which claims to be the first political party in the Russian Federation active in the opposition. He received 8% of the votes in the 1990 presidential elections. After a successful parliamentary election in which LDPR reached the third place in number of votes, Zhirinovsky announced that he would challenge Vladimir Putin in the 2004 Russian presidential election. However, he later withdrew his candidacy.

In January/February 2005, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan declared Zhirinovsky a persona non grata on the territory of his historical homeland of Kazakhstan due to the politician's controversial speech about the change of the Russia–Kazakhstan border, which involved the questioning of the Kazakh people's place in history. During the climax of this incident, Zhirinovsky still held the same view on the issue in question and claimed that his position is allegedly backed by a number of academic works on history and geography. Moreover, he called on the government of Kazakhstan not to take offence on this matter.

Controversies regarding his persona and his political agenda

• According to rumors, Zhirinovsky was a long-time KGB operative and had a Jewish father. His last name is supposed to have been 'Eidelstein' (Эйдельште́йн), which he allegedly changed to Zhirinovsky at the time he received his official Soviet passport at the age of 18. Zhirinovsky constantly denies that he ever worked for the KGB but he has publicly stated that his father was of Jewish ancestry.
• Some critics say that the ideology of Zhirinovsky's party has very little in common with liberalism as the word is perceived in the West: He advocates alliances between the former Soviet republics with the intent of re-establishing the Soviet Union as a state. Zhirinovsky also made statements in which he called for the re-acquisition of Alaska by military force, the invasion and occupation of Iran, and the construction of large fans to blow Russia's nuclear waste into Germany and the Baltic republics. He has also expressed admiration of Adolf Hitler's rule and encouraged the use of nuclear weapons against possible adversaries. He has been known to make anti-Semitic remarks in public, apparently out of self-hatred.
• Zhirinovsky allegedly praised the success of American presidential candidate Pat Buchanan during Buchanan's 1992 Presidential bid. Buchanan refused Zhirinovsky's endorsement.
• A rumor states that in August 2002, during Zhirinovsky's visit to the USA to meet so-called Russian Diaspora individuals and entrepreneurs, a whole box full of "Zhirinovsky" vodka bottles (part of his luggage) was broken while he was flying from New York to Boston (Delta being the carrier). Zhirinovsky claims that police officers had no doubt that the incident was a planned diversion, since luggage is always secured on the plane, the possibility of an accident thus allegedly being very low.
• In 2003, Zhirinovsky engaged in a fistfight after a television debate with Mikhail Delyagin.
• In June 2003, Zhirinovsky celebrated the eighth anniversary of his notorious debate with Boris Nemtsov in 1995, during which a "juice fight" broke out. Zhirinovsky had deliberately spilled the contents of his glass, namely fruit juice, onto Nemtsov. The celebration in 2003 involved an open tournament of splashing juice onto one's opponent. This "tournament" was opened by Zhirinovsky himself by splashing juice onto a group of volunteers, and the event was held in the open near a theatre in Moscow.
• In 2005, Zhirinovsky ignited a brawl in the parliament by spitting at a legislator, Andrei Savelyev.
• Zhirinovsky claims that the 2005 civil unrests in France were initiated by the American Central Intelligence Agency in order to "weaken Europe". See also: Response to the 2005 civil unrest in France
• In reaction to Condoleezza Rice's criticism of the Russian foreign policy during the January 2006 gas dispute with the Ukraine, Zhirinovsky gave a statement to the Russian newspaper Pravda which said that Rice's statement was a reflection of her own unmarried and childless status.
• Zhirinovsky allegedly made a controversial remark related to the spread of the avian flu. According to the January 23, 2006 edition of U.S. News & World Report, Zhirinovsky has "urged men to use rifles to shoot down migratory birds that may carry the virus."

Although the statement itself is quite controversial, especially if voiced by an important political figure, this is what is actually being done in Russia near big chicken farms in order to prevent possible contamination.

External links

• Vladimir Zhirinovsky Bio
• Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Website (in Russian)
• Pravda Article
• Page on Council of Europe

• 1946 births
• Living people
• Russian politicians