#1
Zhirinovsky Now Sounds More Mainstream
December 3, 2001
By GEORGE GEDDA
WASHINGTON (AP) - Eight years ago, Vladimir Zhirinovsky stunned Russians and Americans when he emerged as a major force in Russian politics, campaigning for the reinstatement of the Russian empire and an end to Moscow's flirtation with the United States.
When the ``new'' Zhirinovsky appeared before reporters Monday, the politics of provocation were gone, replaced by something far more conventional.
He called for broad cooperation between the United States and Russia and said he could even envision the day when the two countries could merge into a ``north Atlantic state.''
Zhirinovsky, a legislator back home, is here to attend a conference of parliamentarians.
Moscow and Washington, he said, should cooperate more in the fight against terrorism, with Russia using its influence to help pressure Palestinians, North Koreans and Iraqis toward moderation.
Zhirinovsky counseled against use of American military force against Iraq. This, he said, would only rally the Iraqi people in support of President Saddam Hussein in much the same way that Russians closed ranks behind Stalin during World War II.
He added that U.S.-Russian cooperation would be essential in the event that China decides to become a major military force.
Zhirinovsky recalled the time in 1994 when then-Vice President Al Gore called him an ``extremist and an ultranationalist.''
He made Americans and others nervous at the time by accusing Jews of starting both world wars, by threatening to drop 100 nuclear bombs on any country making territorial claims on Russia and by demanding the return of Alaska, Finland, Poland and other former parts of czarist Russia.
He once said that NATO's involvement in Bosnia starting in 1995 was actually a prelude for an alliance invasion of Russia, aimed at reducing it to the size of Hungary.
To rouse his country from its economic slumber and to eliminate crime, he suggested a ``dictatorship for the sake of democracy'' - with himself at the helm.
Next Article