63 Facts About Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky was a Russian right-wing populist politician and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia from its creation in 1992 until his death.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky had been a member of the State Duma since 1993 and leader of the LDPR group in the State Duma from 1993 to 2000, and from 2011 to 2022.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky served as a deputy chairman of the State Duma from 2000 until 2011.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky worked as a delegate in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1996 to 2008.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was known for many controversies, as well as staunch advocacy for Russian military action against NATO.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was born in Alma-Ata, the capital of the Kazakh SSR, modern-day Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's father, Volf Isaakovich Eidelshtein, was a Ukrainian Jew from Kostopil in western Ukraine, and his mother, Alexandra Pavlovna, was of Russian background from Mordovia region.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky inherited his surname through Andrei Vasilievich Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Alexandra's first husband.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's paternal grandfather was a wealthy industrialist in Kostopil, who owned the largest sawmill in Ukraine and was head of the local Jewish community.

In July 1964, Vladimir Zhirinovsky moved from Almaty to Moscow, where he began his studies in the Department of Turkish Studies, Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, from which he graduated in 1969.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky entered military service in Tbilisi during the early 1970s and worked at posts in state committees and unions.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's father was a member of the right-wing nationalist Herut party in Israel, and died in 1983 when he was run over by a bus near Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky did not find out the details of his father's life in Israel until many years later, or even that he had died.

In 1994, presented with a birth certificate indicating his original name as Eidelshtein, Vladimir Zhirinovsky said the document was faked.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky denied his father's Jewish origins until Ivan Close Your Soul, published in July 2001, in which he described how his father, Volf Isaakovich Eidelshtein, changed his surname from Eidelshtein to Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky later disowned the statement after researching his father's life in Israel.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Israeli family did not know that he was a politician in Russia but responded warmly to his invitation to stay with him in Moscow.

Yakovlev wrote in his memoirs that KGB director Vladimir Zhirinovsky Kryuchkov presented the project of the puppet LDPSU party at a meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev and informed him about the selection of the LDPR leader.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's populist included promises to voters that should he be elected, free vodka would be distributed to all.

In 1992 Vladimir Zhirinovsky made contact with Jean-Marie Le Pen, then leader of France's Front National.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky suggested establishing the International Centre of Right-wing Parties in Moscow and invited Le Pen to visit Moscow.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky ran in the 2000 and 2008 presidential elections, promising a "police state", with summary executions.

Besides expressing his concern for Turks and Caucasians displacing the Russian population from their settled territory, Vladimir Zhirinovsky advocated for all Chinese and Japanese people to be deported from the Russian Far East.

In 2004, Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke at the City Court of Saint Petersburg, in reference to the assassination of Galina Starovoytova.

On 23 August 2014, Vladimir Zhirinovsky said Russia should abolish political parties, instead favouring an autocratic system in which the leader would be chosen by the "five to six thousand wisest people" in the country.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky proposed returning to the Imperial flag and anthem.

In September 2016, inspired by Donald Trump's signature border wall proposal, Vladimir Zhirinovsky proposed building a border wall and banning Muslims from entering Russia.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was known for his boasts pertaining to other countries, having expressed a desire to reunite countries of the ex-Soviet "near abroad" with Russia to within the Russia's borders of 1900.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky advocated forcibly retaking Alaska from the United States, turning Kazakhstan into "Russia's back yard", and provoking wars between the clans and the nations of the former Soviet Union and occupying what will remain of it when the wars are over.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who encouraged separatism within the Russian minority in the Baltic countries, endorsed the forcible re-occupation of these countries and said nuclear waste should be dumped there.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky supported Israel-Russia relations, but said that Israel had to make Russian its official language.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky believed Israel has to pay more attention to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky believed Russians are endangered in Israel and should come under the protection of the Russian police.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky led several official Russian delegations to Israel, on behalf of the Russian government.

In 1994, Vladimir Zhirinovsky sued Finland Swedish politician Jutta Zilliacus and the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki for defamation because she had used the word "galenpanna," or "madcap," to describe him.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky advocated using nuclear weapons and naval blockade-imposed starvation in the event of a Russian war against Japan.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky hailed what he described as "the democratic process" in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, whom he supported strongly.

The friendship dated from at least the Persian Gulf War in 1991, during which time Vladimir Zhirinovsky sent several armed volunteers from the "Falcons of Vladimir Zhirinovsky" group to support the Iraqi president.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was close to the Serbian nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky mentioned Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, and Condoleezza Rice in the video.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky will choke on Russian sperm as it will be leaking out of her ears.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky said he dreamt of the day "when Russian soldiers can wash their boots in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and switch to year-round summer uniforms" following Russia's conquest of Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey and occupation of the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky declared that Bulgaria should annex the Republic of Macedonia, and said that Romania is an artificial state supposedly created by Italian Gypsies who seized territory from Russia, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was expelled from Bulgaria for insulting its president and barred from entry in Germany.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky suggested that McDonald's "should be evicted from Russia" for the affront.

In May 2015, Vladimir Zhirinovsky stated that former President of Georgia and then-Odesa governor Mikheil Saakashvili should be killed.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky expressed his desire to test his DNA to determine whether he and Trump were related.

In September 2016, inspired by Donald Trump's border wall policy, Vladimir Zhirinovsky proposed building a border wall and banning Muslims from entering Russia.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky had a history of personal violence in political contexts.

In 2005, Vladimir Zhirinovsky ignited a brawl in parliament by spitting at Rodina party legislator Andrei Saveliyev.

At an April 2014 press conference in the Duma, Vladimir Zhirinovsky made violent verbal threats against Stella Dubovitskaya, a pregnant Rossiya Segodnya journalist, who asked him about possible sanctions against Ukraine in the wake of Russia's Crimean annexation.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky later apologized, adding that he "spoke a bit rudely when I replied to a young woman".

On 6 February 2012, Vladimir Zhirinovsky released a 30-second election video on the Internet that featured him on a sleigh harnessed to a black donkey representing the country.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky responded by saying that similar treatment is commonplace in the Arab world and that the donkey had been treated "better than many people".

Vladimir Zhirinovsky married Galina Lebedeva, a lawyer and daughter of a retired general in the early 1970s.

Ilya Ponomarev has alleged Vladimir Zhirinovsky was gay in a 2017 interview given in Ukraine.

In 1996 openly gay journalist Yaroslav Mogutin suggested it was "a foregone conclusion" that Vladimir Zhirinovsky was gay according to Russia's gay intelligensia in The Advocate.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a polyglot and was fluent in English, French, German, and Turkish.

In February 2022, Vladimir Zhirinovsky was hospitalized in critical condition in Moscow with COVID-19.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky claimed to have been vaccinated against COVID-19 eight times.

On 25 March 2022, Vladimir Zhirinovsky was reported to have died in a hospital.

On 6 April 2022, Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of the Duma, announced that Vladimir Zhirinovsky had died following a long illness.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's funeral was officiated by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Rus' in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, at the presence of several high-ranking politicians, including Putin, Volodin and Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu.