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Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, an ultranationalist firebrand politician who was a pillar of the Kremlin’s political system, has died. He was 75.
The chairman of Russia’s decrease home of Parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, advised lawmakers on Wednesday that Mr. Zhirinovsky had died “after a severe and prolonged sickness.” Mr. Zhirinovsky had been admitted to a hospital in Moscow with Covid-19, Russian media reported in February. His political occasion, the Liberal Democratic Celebration, mentioned that he died on Wednesday.
Mr. Zhirinovsky headed Russia’s major nationalist occasion and ran in opposition to President Vladimir V. Putin repeatedly in presidential elections. However he was a vital participant in Mr. Putin’s system of “managed democracy,” which included events that had been nominally within the opposition however had been in actual fact loyal to the Kremlin.
Mr. Zhirinovsky’s function, analysts mentioned, was to scoop up the votes of Russian nationalists whereas supporting Mr. Putin on key points.
“He was the primary populist of the trendy European kind,” mentioned Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow on the Carnegie Moscow Heart, a analysis group. “In Putin’s time, he turned very important,” Mr. Kolesnikov added, as a result of “he channeled the votes of far-right voters.”
In so doing, Mr. Zhirinovsky gave voice to nationalist, chauvinist and imperialist impulses — and advocated often the reuniting of Russia with what he thought-about historic Russian lands in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
On Dec. 27, he gave a speech to Parliament that appeared to foreshadow Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, predicting {that a} turning level within the nation’s historical past would come on Feb. 22. (The invasion started on Feb. 24.)
“This is not going to be a peaceable 12 months,” Mr. Zhirinovsky mentioned. “This would be the 12 months when Russia lastly turns into an amazing nation once more, and everybody should shut up and respect our nation.”
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