What do Russians think of Zhirinovsky?

Старый шут был лучше нового. Дмитрий Анатольевичу не хватает опыта.

Шут- очень важная фигура в государстве. Его устами государь говорит то, что государю говорить не пристало. Шутов традиционно берут из умных. Это очень ответственная должность.

Жириновский был специалистом по турции и ближнему востоку, имел также дипломатическое образование. Хорошо играл свою роль. Когда надо выглядел дураком, но, на самом деле дураком не был.

He was a court jester and he was sorta funny and made a lot of predictions(by sharing inside information publicly)

Suddenly he turned out to be a prophet. We all laughed at his predictions, but they started coming true one after another after his death.

Honestly, while it's funny to talk about his marvellous predictions sometimes, if you look at what he was saying in the 90s, you'll see that he really was just a weathercock, albeit with a right lean.

His early persona was all about how the USSR ruined everything and everyone, that Russia should return to its pre-1917 state. Then he went into opposition against Yeltsin, and started "predicting" that Yeltsin will never give up power and that he'd put his daughter as ruler (which, if you think about it, would be closer to the pre-1917 Russia that he was advocating for).

After that he would just go off on his clownish rants that sometimes did hold a grain of truth in them, but really, he was a spoiler for all those who didn't quite align with the government, but didn't have the compulsive need to hate everything Russian (the way most of the non-systemic, left-leaining opposition did). He occupied the part of the political specter to the right of the government, but since he kept relatively tame, that allowed the right to not slide into full-blown nationalism and xenophobia.

I'd say the way the modern non-systemic opposition (like all those Prigozhin-funded talking heads) went hard right is partially a result of Zhirinovskiy's absence. They latched onto another charismatic blowhard, and then started regurgitating copies of Western political right talking points.

Prophetic and based.

His role in Russian politics was literally a court jester like in medieval times.

RIP

The best clown we've ever had. Genuinely love him

Tired of answering that question

Довольно эпатажный, но умный человек. Часто выдавал базу, притом отличающуюся от линии государства, при этом многие из его прогнозов сбылись.

Ныне покойный придворный шут Путина,забавлявший народ своими поступками.Больше нечего сказать.

He was a kind-hearted man and a patriot.

populist and clown

krutoy mujik

He was too emotional to be taken seriously by anyone. For his own detriment. I really doubt he had any actual impact on Russian politics.

It is pretty much our Trump, but much more smart.

He was a prophet.

Эйдельштейн Владимир… сын тоже Эйдельштейн…

He was smart and well educated man with quite nice sense of humor, whose predictions were and are unite accurate. Sadly he passed away around 2 years ago and now he is replaced with less experienced Leonid Slutskiy

Nothing. Zhirinovsky is completely dead. No any thoughts, just a lot of memories. You should ask of that stuff not to Russians as a monolith, but as an each distinct person. So, I guess, we have not any legal issue to ask Americans, as a nation, what do they think of Biden, who looks pretty alive being in fact a speaking muppet. So, it's just a private opinion of mine.

We had a joke - so sad it is not possible to Save IRL as in computer game. If it was possible I would Save and elect Zhirinovsky to check what will happen.

he is a politician who predicted a lot in world politics and is probably the only politician who spoke the truth about political reality as it is. He even predicted a war in Ukraine, and many laughed at him.

A patriot, an intelligent and charismatic man with an excellent sense of humor.

A man who accidentally (maybe on purpose) made a lot of memes about himself and had a very controversial political programme.

He was funny. The west too him too seriously. Was much more complicated than you’d think. One journalist had two interviews with him and had been refused a third one. When he ran into VVZ in a corridor later and asked why, he replied “your interviews make me look too smart. I don’t need that”.

He was what Boris Johnson should have been - a court clown that served a purpose and stayed in his lane

Clown 🤡

I feel like he was Russian equivalent of Trump. talks a lot of 💩 but how much of it is real and how much is to stir up people nobody really knows.

Some may call Zhirinovsky a jester, but he was only so on camera. If you listen to his interviews on serious topics, his erudition, foresight, and deep understanding of the essence of the problems discussed are evident. Look at how he answers random questions, breaking down problems into details that ordinary people do not notice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wut1tlhSfMg

He knew and understood that everything has a reason and if someone is angry about the situation in the country, they simply do not understand something. Some will say that there is no change of power in Russia. But look at China, the USA, etc., where there is effectively no change of power either, and the whole world lives like this. Even in the EU, only puppets are changed, and this does not lead to significant improvements. Absolute freedom does not exist; control is needed for stability. The country has no money, and there are reasons for this too. More than half of the country is permafrost, and the small territory that is suitable for cultivation is three times less fertile than the land in Germany, for example. There is nowhere to supply agricultural products, only to Africa, but it is very expensive due to logistics, and the price must be significantly reduced. In the high-tech sector, it is impossible to compete with China again because of expensive logistics and a small population that cannot create the necessary domestic demand for a positive level of profitability. The country now has only 150 million people, almost like in Japan, but the territory is huge. At least 300 million people are needed to create a self-sufficient domestic market. Infrastructure construction is very costly, and the payback and profitability are very low due to the low volume of demand, again, due to the low population density. Tourism also brings nothing; St. Petersburg and Moscow are far from Paris or Amsterdam or any major European city, and it was so before the SMO and will be after. There remains Gazprom, which is in huge losses due to the burden placed on it. The birth rate is falling, and there are more pensioners. It is necessary to let Tajiks into the country; otherwise, it is simply not sustainable. Even if the power changes, the new ruler will not have the opportunity to change anything for the better. Zhirinovsky often said that there would be a war. He understood that this could not be avoided and if you imagine an alternative history where NATO captured Ukraine, then, I suppose, it is obvious that for Russia this would be the final and irrevocable end because there are no more levers and will not be. But was this obvious before the start of the war? For Zhirinovsky - yes, but not for most people in Russia. Other videos have been preserved where he reasoned about this even in the 2000s. This was not some kind of fortune-telling; it was strategic thinking and a deep vision and understanding of the situation. Someone will say that he talked a lot but did nothing. But what was he supposed to do? His entire role was to explain to those who did not understand but were ready to understand.

Biggest clown of Russian politics. Populist, fascist and a big Russian imperialist. Meh.

He was very wise to die just before all the war fiasco.

Вот и помер дед Владим

He's horrible. And I can never ever understand people who seriosly believed him and believed in him.

Shit cowboy

Populist/court jester that became too popular and thus threat for Putin. This is why he is not active anymore, doesn't want to fall out of window or get totally mysterious heart attack.