Vladimir Zhirinovsky Died: Big Blow To Putin As Russian Top Politician Dies

Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has passed away.

The 75-year-old politician had been hospitalized since February with a diagnosis of coronavirus. Zhirinovsky died from complications of the infection.

Zhirinovsky was in serious condition at a Moscow hospital, where he has been since early February after testing positive for COVID-19 and developing pneumonia.

He has been described as fiercely nationalist and as “a showman of Russian politics, blending populist and nationalist rhetoric, anti-Western invective and a brash, confrontational style”.

Zhirinovsky was born in Almaty, the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, modern-day Kazakhstan.

His father, Volf Isaakovich Eidelshtein (or Wolf Andreyevich Eidelshtein), was a Ukrainian Jew from Kostopil in western Ukraine, and his mother, Alexandra Pavlovna, was of Russian background from Mordovia region.

Zhirinovsky inherited his surname through Andrei Vasilievich Zhirinovsky, Alexandra’s first husband. His paternal grandfather was a wealthy industrialist in Kostopil, who owned the largest sawmill in (what is now) Ukraine and was head of the Jewish community.

His grandfather’s mill today has an income of $32 million a year, and over the years Zhirinovsky has demanded successive Ukrainian governments return it to him.