The news had spread in the independent media in the morning. The state was quick to deny.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky died. Indeed, no. He is still alive but in serious condition. The one around the leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (which despite its name is a right-wing party) is the latest clash between independent and state communication in Russia.
This morning had spread among the Russian media – and the first to break the news was the Telegram channel of Mash – the news of his death, shortly after 10.45, due to Covid, after 24 hours spent in a coma. But on Friday morning the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskovwas quick to deny: “Someone spread fake news today, it’s indecent,” he told reporters according to Tass. “Thank God Vladimir Zhirinovsky is alive, he is still in serious condition but he is being treated by doctors.”
The mystery of Zhirinovsky’s death
Zhirinovsky, 75, a Duma veteran, founded and led the far-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) for the past three decades, supporting Vladimir Putin’s policies. A speech he made in the Duma in December 2021 went viral last month for predicting the date and time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with near-perfect accuracy. “It will take place at 4 am on February 22,” Zhirinovsky said in a rant against NATO. Just two days after the prediction, Putin had ordered troops to invade Ukraine in what the Kremlin continues to call a “special operation” and not a “war”. The news of the death – and Mash is a channel known to have ties to Russian security services – was swift. So much so that the Duma spokesman Vyacheslav Volodin urged Senator Alexander Pronyushkin to resign after publishing (and then canceling) a social message confirming Zhirinovsky’s death.
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“At a time when the country is under stress, this fakey news is real anti-state provocations that cannot be unhooked,” the party said. The Russian health ministry has also tried to silence the rumors, explaining that Zhirinovsky is in “stable” condition and is being assisted by doctors. However, no visual evidence of Zhirinovsky’s condition was provided since his hospitalization on February 2.
Who is Zhirinovsky
Zhirinovsky is the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, a highly anti-Western populist and nationalist movement. His term “incendiary” style has provoked enormous criticism from political opponents. He was also a member of the State Duma, of which he was also a vice-president, and was a colonel in the Soviet Army and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In 2014 an episode that reached the West: during a press conference he invited two men to rape a journalist from Russia Today, six months pregnant, guilty of asking a question about possible Russian retaliation against the government of Kyiv in response to the ban on entry to Ukraine for male Russian citizens. The next day, after learning that the woman had been hospitalized for her stress, in an interview with Rossija 1 she apologized to her and offered to pay for her medical bills.
Galina Lebedeva was the honorable wife of Zhirinovsky.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.
