Željko Ražnatović
250px Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović, in front of his Serb paramilitary group, the Serb Volunteer Guard ("Arkan's Tigers")
Nickname	Arkan
Born	17 April 1952 Brežice; PR Slovenia, FPR Yugoslavia
Died	15 January 2000 (aged 47) Belgrade; Serbia, FR Yugoslavia
Allegiance	Republika Srpska Krajina  Republika Srpska  Serbia
Years of service	1991–1995; Croatia and Bosnia (operative leader of volunteer troops) 1998–1999; Kosovo (only as figure of front's supervisor)
Rank	Leader of the Serb Volunteer Guard (Unofficial paramilitary force)
Unit	Serb Volunteer Guard

Željko Ražnatović (Serbian Cyrillic: Жељко Ражнатовић, pronounced [ʒêːʎko raʒnâːtovitɕ]), widely known as Arkan (Аркан; 17 April 1952 – 15 January 2000) was a Serbian career criminal and later a paramilitary leader who was notable for organizing and leading a paramilitary force in the Yugoslav Wars. He was on Interpol's most wanted list in the 1970s and 1980s for robberies and murders committed in a number of European countries and was later indicted by the UN for crimes against humanity. Arkan was assassinated in 2000 before his trial.

Early life[link]

Željko Ražnatović was born in Brežice, a small border town in the Styrian region of southern Slovenia, where his father was stationed at the time. He also spent a part of his childhood in Zagreb and Pančevo, before his father's job eventually took the family to Belgrade, which Arkan considered his hometown. His disciplinarian father Veljko Ražnatović was a Montenegrin Serb who served as a decorated officer in the SFR Yugoslav Air Force, earning high rank for his notable World War II involvement on the Partisan side, while his mother Slavka Josifović whom his father had met in Kosovo during the liberation of Italian-occupied Pristina also took part in the war as a communist activist.

Arkan grew up in the 27th March Street, in Belgrade, SR Serbia^[1] with three older sisters in a strict, militaristic household with beatings administered by his father being a regular occurrence. In a 1991 interview for Duga magazine, Arkan recalled: "He didn't really hit me in a classical sense, he'd basically grab me and slam me against the floor."^[2] Due to the highly demanding and significant position of both his parents, there appeared to be very little time in which a bond was able to be established between parents and children. His parents eventually divorced during his teenage years.

He wanted to become a pilot.^[1]

Criminal career[link]

Arkan ran away from home for the first time at age nine. He later frequently ran away to stay with more tolerant relatives, and simultaneously also got involved in various kinds of crime, eventually ending up in a delinquents' institution.

Based on the rare occasions when Arkan attended school, he was said to be a decent student with a quick and argumentative mind. Most of his time was spent training in kick-boxing or loitering in the streets of Belgrade with the nightly gatherings with girls at the Kalemegdan Park.

Arkan was arrested for the first time in 1966 and spent a year at a juvenile detention center not far from Belgrade. His father then sent him to the seaside town of Kotor to join the Yugoslav Navy, but Arkan had other plans, ending up in Paris at the age of 15. In 1969 he was arrested by French police and shipped home, where he was sentenced to three years at the detention center in Valjevo for several burglaries. During this time he organized his own gang in the prison.^[1]

In his youth, Arkan was a ward of his father's friend,^[3] the Slovenian politician and Federal Minister of the Interior, Stane Dolanc.^[4] Dolanc was chief of the secret police and a close associate of the Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. Whenever Arkan was in trouble Dolanc helped him as a reward for his services to the Yugoslav secret state police (UDBA), as seen in the escapade from the Lugano prison in 1981. Stane Dolanc is quoted as having said: "One Arkan is worth more than the whole UDBA."^[4]

The European years[link]

In 1972, at the age of 20, hoping to find fortune through a criminal career, he illegally emigrated to Western Europe.^[5] Abroad, he got introduced to and kept contact with many well-known criminals from Yugoslavia such as Ljuba Zemunac, Ranko Rubežić, Đorđe Božović Giška, Goran Vuković, Rade Ćaldović Ćenta etc. all of whom, like him, were also occasionally contracted by the Yugoslav secret service. He took the nickname "Arkan" from one of his forged passports.^[5] He had convictions or warrants in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden (20 burglaries, 7 bank robberies, outside assistance to prison escape, attempted murder^[6]), Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.

On 28 December 1974 he was arrested in Belgium following a bank robbery and was sentenced to ten years. On 4 July 1979, he managed to escape from the Verviers prison. A Belgian police official was quoted as saying: "He's the most dangerous man I ever came across. He's no ordinary criminal, he's a rabid dog".^[7]

Though Arkan was rearrested in the Netherlands on 24 October 1979, the few months he was free were enough for at least two more armed robberies in Sweden and three more in Holland. Serving a 7-year sentence at a prison in Amsterdam, he pulled off another escape on 8 May 1981 after someone slipped him a gun. Wasting no time, more robberies followed, this time in Germany where after less than a month of freedom he was arrested in Frankfurt on 5 June 1981 following a jewellery store stick up. In the ensuing shoot out with police he was lightly wounded, resulting in his placement in the prison hospital ward where looser security allowed him to escape again only four days later, on 9 June, supposedly by jumping from the window, beating up the first bystander, and stealing his clothing before disappearing.^[5] His final European arrest occurred in Basel, Switzerland during a routine traffic check on 15 February 1983. However he managed to escape again within months, this time from Torberg prison on 27 April. It is widely speculated that Arkan was closely affiliated with Yugoslav security service UDBA throughout his criminal career abroad.^[5] Ražnatović was even on Interpol's ten most wanted list.

Arkan learned the main European languages because of his undercover work in Western Europe. He spoke fluent English, German, French, and Italian, and was also familiar with Swedish, and Dutch. He also spoke some Albanian and Bulgarian.

Back in Yugoslavia[link]

Arkan returned to Yugoslavia in May 1983, continuing his criminal career by opening a number of illegal businesses. In November 1983, two federal policemen ambushed Arkan at his house in order to have him arrested and interrogated over some of his activities. He resisted, pulled a gun, and shot and wounded both of them. An intervention from federal Interior Minister Stane Dolanc effected his release from prison only two days later. This incident increased Arkan's criminal-political reputation in Belgrade as it now became clear to every one of his underworld rivals that he enjoyed protection from the highest circles.

Role in the Yugoslav wars[link]

Early[link]

Only days after the Croatian elections in 1990, Arkan, who was the leader of the Delije, football fans of the Belgrade club Red Star Belgrade, was at place when Croatian Dinamo Zagreb played home against the Red Star at Stadion Maksimir on May 13, a match that ended in a riot.^[8] Arkan and his group, consisting of 1500 people, were inrolled in a huge fight with the home team football hooligans.^[9]

On 11 October 1990, as the political, ethnic, and religious situation in the former Yugoslavia became tense (see Log Revolution), Arkan created a paramilitary group named the Serb Volunteer Guard, possibly under the auspices of the Department of State Security.^[10] Arkan was the supreme commander of the unit, which was primarily made up of members of the Delije and his friends.^[11] In late October 1990, Arkan traveled to Knin to meet representatives of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, a break-away region composed out of ethnic Serbs wanting to remain in FR Yugoslavia (with Montenegro and Serbia), as opposed to the Croatian government that seceded.

On 29 November 1990, Croatian police arrested him at the Croatian-Bosnian border crossing Dvor na Uni, along with local Dušan Carić, and Belgraders Dušan Bandić and Zoran Stevanović. His entourage was sent to Sisak, and was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the newly formed Croatian state. Arkan was given 20 months in jail. He was released from the Remetinec prison in Zagreb on 14 June 1991 under unclear circumstances, without the notice of Josip Boljkovac, then Internal Minister. It is believed that the Croatian and Serbian governments agreed on a 1 million DM settlement.^[12]

In July 1991, Arkan was for some time at the Cetinje monastery, with Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović. His group of men, fully armed, were allowed to enter the monastery, which they served as security.^[13][14] Arkan's group travelled from Cetinje to the Siege of Dubrovnik. At the return from Dubrovnik, he was again guest at Cetinje.^[13]

War[link]

Arkan's Tigers, a paramilitary force he created, set up their headquarters and training camp in a former military facility in Erdut. His volunteer army saw action from mid 1991 to late 1995, initially in Vukovar region of Croatia. Arkan's much feared irregular military forces consisted of a core of 200 men and perhaps totaled no more than 500 to 1,000.^[15] His units were supplied and equipped by the reserves of the Serbian police force during the war in Croatia and Bosnia.

After war broke out in the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia in the fall of 1991 and in Bosnia in April 1992, Arkan and his units moved to different territories in these countries. In the Republic of Serbian Krajina, Arkan's Tigers fought in various locales in SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia. In the Republika Srpska, Arkan's Tigers, fought in battles in and around Zvornik, Bijeljina and Brčko mostly with other paramilitary groups on the Croatian and Bosniak side.

In autumn 1995 his troops fought in the area of Banja Luka, Sanski Most and Prijedor. In October 1995 he was forced to go from Sanski most and Bosnia-Herzegovina, as Armija BiH took the city from the Serbs.^[16] Arkan personally led most of war actions, and rewarded his most efficient officers and soldiers with ranks, medals and eventually the products of the lootings.

Arkan came to serve as a popular icon for both Serbs and their enemies. For some Serbs he was a folk hero and patriot, while serving as a target of hatred to their enemies. His troops were also stationed in the Republic of Serbian Krajina to fight against the Croatian paramilitary forces, and he had a dispute over military operations with the Serbian regional leader Milan Martić^[17] Arkan also had friendly contacts and political plans with Russian ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Power and influence in Yugoslavia[link]

Arkan was a powerful man with high-level connections in the state apparatus. He had significant influence over public spheres of Serbian society. As part of his public image, Arkan presented himself as a defender of Serbs and fighter for freedom and justice. He clearly fostered two types of images, that of a strong, stern, and often brutal leader in public as well as a caring and reserved family man in private.

Arkan was glorified by part of the Serb population as a war hero, and was the subject of war songs. He owned a voluminous mansion in the elite Belgrade neighborhood of Dedinje where high-ranking politicians and foreign diplomats reside. Despite being raised an atheist in a family of communists, Arkan made a point of showing public respects to the Serbian Orthodox Church, especially its head Patriarch Pavle. Additionally, he observed and celebrated various religious holidays, often publicly. Some questioned the motives behind these public displays of his new found religious spirituality and saw it as shameless self-promotion ploy in an attempt at ingratiation with the Serbian public.

On 3 November 1993, Arkan and his followers founded the Party of Serbian Unity, and he became its president, but the party lost parliamentary elections and failed to win seats despite an energetic promotional campaign. In the 2000 election, however, the party received 200,000 votes and won 14 seats in the Serbian parliament.

Vojislav Šešelj, a political rival of his, described the power Arkan wielded as early as 1987 during his testimony at the Milošević trial in 2005.

Arkan became an untouchable criminal figure in Belgrade and all of the former Yugoslavia. He was really so powerful, so strong financially that no one could do anything about him.... In 1993, I learned that Željko Ražnatović, Arkan, had in Belgrade kidnapped and taken to Erdut and there killed Isa Lero... also a man from the criminal underground who had come into conflict with Arkan. I even found a witness to the murder. I publicly accused Arkan. I submitted a report to the police. The police inspectors came to see me. We talked about it. I gave them all the information I had, but then the police inspector told me that they were aware of it but that they were unable to prove it because of the fear among the potential witnesses. So the police were quite well-informed about his criminal activities, but it was very hard to prove anything or to bring charges because his support network was so widespread, and this can be shown through various newspaper articles and so on. In one television statement, I told him when we were debating on TV, that he had pulled a sock over his head more often than I had pulled one on my feet.^[18]

In the postwar period after the Dayton agreement was signed, Arkan returned to his interests in sport and private business. The Serb Volunteer Guard was officially disbanded in April 1996 with the threat to be reactivated in case of war emergency. In June of that year he took over a second division soccer team FK Obilić which he soon turned into a top caliber club, even winning the 1997/98 Yugoslav league championship. According to a book by Franklin Foer, How Football Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, Arkan threatened players on opposing teams if they scored against Obilić.

This threat was underlined by the thousands of veterans from his army that filled their home field, chanting threats, and on occasion pointing pistols at opposition players during matches. One player told the British football magazine FourFourTwo that he was locked in a garage when his team played Obilić. Europe's football governing body, UEFA, considered prohibiting Obilić from participation in continental competitions because of its connections to Arkan. In response to this, Arkan stepped away from the position of president and gave his seat to his wife Ceca. Arkan was also a chairman of the Yugoslav Kick-boxing Association.

Arkan has been accused of being involved in protection rackets, extortion, and the smuggling of oil and luxury items. Later he pursued more legitimate business and had about 400 people working for him. He owned casinos, discos, gas stations, pastry shops, stores, bakeries, restaurants, gyms, as well as a private security agency.^{[citation needed]}

Arkan was unofficially allied with Slobodan Milošević, and operated under his control, although he was fairly independent in his day-to-day actions and decisions.^{[citation needed]} Contacts between the men were usually carried out through a mediator Radovan "Badža" Stojičić, Serbia's police chief and Milošević's close associate, who was assassinated in April 1997.

In August 1998, when tensions over Kosovo had already begun, Arkan tried to get close to the West, writing a letter of support to U.S. president Bill Clinton over the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In the letter he expressed condolences for the victims that died in the attack, and warned Clinton of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism. An excerpt from his letter reads: "Mr President... do not allow that terrorism continues in this part of Balkan in the Serbian state, which is forever a friend of your state." Clinton ignored him and never responded to the letter.^{[citation needed]}

Role in the war in Kosovo[link]

According to chief judge Richard May from the United Kingdom, the ICTY issued an indictment against Arkan on 30 September 1997 for war crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva convention of 1949 for customs and traditions of war.^[19] The warrant was kept sealed and was not made public until 31 March 1999, a week after NATO bombing in Yugoslavia had begun. Arkan's indictment was made public by Louise Arbour, then UN court's chief prosecutor.

In the week before the start of NATO bombing – as the Rambouillet talks collapsed – Arkan appeared at the Hyatt hotel in Belgrade, where most Western journalists were staying, and ordered all of them to leave Serbia.^[20]

During the NATO aerial bombardment of Serbia, Arkan denied the war crime charges against him in interviews he gave to foreign reporters during the Kosovo War. Arkan blamed NATO for the bombing of civilians and creating refugees of all ethnicities, and stated that he would deploy his troops only in the case of a NATO direct ground invasion. After the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which killed three journalists and led to a diplomatic row between the U.S. and People’s Republic of China, NATO and various Western media claimed the building might have been targeted because the office of the Chinese military attaché was being used by Arkan to communicate and transmit messages to his paramilitary group, the Tigers, in Kosovo. As no one had any proofs for this claim it was immediately withdrawn from the media.^[21]

ICTY indictment[link]

In March 1999, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced that Željko Ražnatović (Arkan) had been indicted by the Tribunal, although the indictment was only made public after Arkan’s assassination.

According to the indictment Arkan should have been prosecuted on 24 charges of crimes against humanity (Art. 5 ICTY Statute), grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions (Art. 2 ICTY Statute) and violations of the laws of war (Art. 3 ICTY Statute), for the following acts:^[22]

• Forcibly detaining approximately thirty non-Serb men, in an inadequately ventilated room of approximately five square metres in size.
• Transporting twelve non-Serb men from Sanski Most to an isolated location in the village of Trnova and shooting them, killing eleven of the men and critically wounding the twelfth.
• Transporting approximately sixty-seven non-Serb men from Sanski Most, Sehovci, and Pobrijeze to an isolated location in the village of Sasina and shooting them, killing sixty-five of the captives and wounding two survivors.
• Forcibly detaining approximately thirty-five non-Serb men in an inadequately ventilated room of about five square metres in size, withholding from them food and water, resulting in the deaths of two men.

It is claimed that Arkan was individually responsible for the crimes alleged against him in this indictment pursuant to Art. 7 § 1 of the ICTY Statute. But Arkan was also or alternatively criminally responsible as a commander for the acts of his subordinates pursuant to Art. 7 § 3 of the ICTY Statute, since he had at all times the complete authority to direct and control all of the actions of the members of his paramilitary unit.

Assassination[link]

Arkan's grave

Arkan was assassinated, on 15 January 2000, 17:05 GMT, in the lobby of Belgrade's elite InterContinental Hotel, a location where he was surrounded by other hotel guests. The killer, Dobrosav Gavrić, was a 23-year-old police mobile brigade's junior member. Gavrić had ties to the underworld and was on sick leave at the time. He walked up alone towards his target from behind. Arkan was sitting and chatting with two of his friends and, according to BBC Radio, was filling out a betting slip. Gavrić waited for a few minutes, calmly walked up behind the party, and rapidly fired a succession of bullets from his CZ-99 duty-issued pistol. Arkan was shot in his left eye and lapsed into a coma on the spot.^[23] His bodyguard Zvonko Mateović put him into a car, and rushed him to a hospital, but he died on the way. According to an article on NPR, Milošević's own men may have killed him for knowing too much.^[24]

According to his wife, Svetlana Ceca Ražnatović, Arkan died in her arms as they were driving to the hospital.

Hotel Intercontinental

Arkan's companions, Milenko Mandić, a business manager, and Dragan Garić, a police inspector, were also shot to death by Gavrić. Gavrić was shot and wounded immediately after by Arkan's bodyguard, Zvonko Mateović, and fell unconscious. A woman bystander was seriously wounded in a shootout between the two as well. After complicated surgery, Gavrić survived, but remained disabled and a wheelchair user as result of a spinal wound.

Željko Ražnatović Arkan was buried with military honours by his volunteers and with funeral rites on 20 January 2000. Around 30,000 people attended the funeral.

In reaction to the death, Serb sentiments varied across the political spectrum. For those who sympathised with his anti non-Serb rhetoric, he was a war hero, but for many who had seen and heard of his and the Tigers' actions, as well as his apparent political connections, feared him too much to make any public comment at the time.^[25]

Trials and rumours[link]

Dobrosav Gavrić pleaded innocent and never admitted to committing the crime. He was found guilty and sentenced to 19 years in prison. His accomplices received from 3 to 15 years each, after a year-long trial in 2002. However the district court verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court because of "lack of evidence and vagueness of the first trial process".

A new trial was conducted in 2006, ending on 9 October 2006 with guilty verdicts upheld for Gavrić as well as his accomplices Milan Đuričić and Dragan Nikolić. Each man received 30 years in prison.^[26] Only Nikolić is actually serving the sentence while Gavrić and Đuričić have been on the run for years.

Still, the murder's background and identities of the person(s) who ordered it remain unclear and subject of rife speculation. According to one rumour, Marko Milošević, the son of Yugoslavia's president at the time, Slobodan Milošević, was said to have had a harsh quarrel with Arkan over control of oil-smuggling rackets. NPR reported that he was more likely someone who simply knew too much when war crimes trials were becoming a reality for the Milošević regime.^[24]

Yet another rumour claims that Borislav Pelević, Arkan's close associate and his successor as president of Party of Serbian Unity, served as the "inside man" for the plot against Arkan. Security services also wiretapped Arkan shortly before his murder; for four months the group allegedly followed Arkan's movements and whereabouts, learning his habits.^{[citation needed]}

On 15 January 2008, 8-year anniversary of Arkan's death, his sister Jasna Diklić accused Andrija Drašković, a controversial businessman with alleged ties to the Mafia, of being behind her brother's murder. She further accused Serbian state institutions of "protecting Arkan's murderers Gavrić and Đuričić, and not doing anything to apprehend them".^[27]

According to 1994 relation of SISMI, Arkan sent one of his most trusted men, Radovan Stanisc to Italy to start relationship with camorra boss Francesco Schiavone . Arkan, asked Schiavone for arms for his guerrillas and the participation of Schiavone to solve two crucial problems: quieten the Albanian mobsters, because they stopped his war, blocking the weapon route, and make arrive the money in Serbia, under the form of humanitarian aid. In exchange the near entrepreneurs clans acquired at optimal prices companies, enterprises, stores, masserie, breedings in half Serbia.^[28]

Personal[link]

Arkan fathered nine children by five different women.^[29]

His eldest son was born in 1975, from a relationship with a Swedish woman.

Then followed two daughters: Sofia from relations with a Belgian woman and Anđela (born 1980) with a Belgrade actress. Arkan acknowledged paternity of each of his three children that were born out of wedlock.

Arkan's first wife was Natalija Martinović, a Spanish language professor, with whom he had four children: daughter Milena, twin sons Vojin and Nikola, and another daughter Maša. Their divorce became official in December 1994.

Arkan's best known wife Ceca, famous Serbian folk singer

Since 1993 Arkan was involved with the popular folk singer Svetlana "Ceca" Veličković, 21 years his junior. Their lavish wedding ceremony on 19 February 1995 occurred as a day-long media production carried live on TV Pink with different locations and changes of clothing (at different points of the ceremony Arkan alternated between World War I Serb military uniform and traditional Montenegrin attire). "Ceca" bore him two more children, son Veljko and daughter Anastasija.

In June 1994, sometime after her separation from Arkan, Natalija Martinović and their four children left Yugoslavia and moved to Athens, Greece where Arkan bought them an apartment in the suburb of Glyfada. After Arkan's death Martinović disputed his will^[30][31], claiming that Ceca, his second wife, doctored it. In May 2000, she sued Ceca over ownership of Arkan's assets including the villa at 3 Ljutice Bogdana Street in which he and Ceca lived (and Ceca continues to reside in to this day), claiming it was built with funds from a bank loan Martinović and Arkan took out in 1985.^[32] The court eventually ruled against Martinović.^[33] The court agreed with her assertions that the villa was built with money from a 1985 bank loan taken out by her and Arkan, but also found that she forfeited any rights in future division of that asset when she signed the property over to Arkan in 1994 before moving to Greece.

In 2012 Arkan's and Natalija's son Vojin again accused Ceca of falsifying Arkan's will.^[34]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Stewart, Christopher S. (January 2008). Hunting the Tiger. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-35606-4. 
• Who is the man called Arkan?

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Željko Ražnatović

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Željko Ražnatović

• Gangster's life of Serb warlord, BBC News 15 January 2000
• Arkan: Underworld boss of Milošević's murder squad, The Guardian, 19 January 2000
• My Tea with Arkan the Henchman, TIME Magazine, 12 April 1999
• 'Blood and Honey – A Balkan War Journal', npr, February 2001
• Video:The hunt for a war criminal Arkan

Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vice Chairman of the State Duma
President	Vladimir Putin
Prime Minister	Dmitry Medvedev
Personal details
Born	Vladimir Volfovich Eidelstein (1946-04-25) 25 April 1946 (age 66) Almaty, Kazakh SSR, USSR
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
Spouse(s)	Galina Aleksandrovna, born Lebedeva
Children	Igor Lebedev
Alma mater	Moscow State University
Occupation	politician, founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Vice-Chairman of the State Duma
Religion	Eastern Orthodox
Signature
Military service
Awards	Order of Merit for the Fatherland (4th class), Order of Honour, Medal of Zhukov, Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow", Medal of Merit in the Russian Population Census, Medal "In Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg", Medal Anatoliya Koni, Order "For Personal Courage" (DMR), Order of Honor and Glory (Abkhazia), Distinguished Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Diploma of the President of the Russian Federation, Honorary Railwayman

Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky (Russian: Влади́мир Во́льфович Жирино́вский), born Vladimir Volfovich Eidelstein (Russian: Влади́мир Во́льфович Эйдельште́йн) on 25 April 1946, is a Russian politician and political activist. He is colonel of the Russian Army, founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Vice-Chairman of the State Duma, and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.^[1][2][3][4]

Zhirinovsky is often viewed as "a showman of Russian politics, blending populist and nationalist rhetoric, anti-Western invective and a brash, confrontational style".^[5]

Early life and politics[link]

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 Polish Jew, and his mother, Alexandra Pavlovna (née Makarova), was of Russian background.^[6][7][8][9] Zhirinovsky himself is an Eastern Orthodox Christian.^[10]

In July 1964, Zhirinovsky moved from Almaty to Moscow, where he began his studies in the Department of Turkish Studies, Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University (MSU), from which he graduated in 1969. Zhirinovsky then went into military service in Tbilisi during the early 1970s. He would later get a law degree and work at various posts in state committees and unions. He was awarded a PhD in philosophy by MSU in 1998. Although he participated in some reformist groups, Zhirinovsky was largely inconsequential in Soviet political developments during the 1980s. While he contemplated a role in politics, a nomination attempt for a seat as a People's Deputy in 1989 was quickly abandoned.^[11]

Liberal-Democratic Party[link]

In 1990, Zhirinovsky, along with Vladimir Bogachev, took initiatives which led to the founding of the Liberal Democratic Party, the second registered party in the Soviet Union and therefore the first officially sanctioned opposition party. According to the former CPSU Politburo member Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, this party was a joint project of Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) leadership and the KGB.^[12][13] Yakovlev wrote in his memoirs that KGB director Vladimir Kryuchkov presented the project of the puppet LDPR party at a meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev and informed him about a selection of the LDPR leader. According to Yakovlev, the name of the party was invented by KGB General Philipp Bobkov. However Bobkov said that he was against the creation of this "Zubatov's pseudo-party under KGB control that directs interests and sentiments of certain social groups".^[14]

Zhirinovsky's first political breakthrough came in June 1991 when he came in third at Russia's first presidential elections, gathering more than six million votes or 7.81%. Afterwards, the LDPR garnered a reputation as an ineffective vehicle for opposition against the government, and one that lacked either credibility or authenticity, particularly given Zhirinovsky's vocal support for the Soviet coup attempt of 1991.^{[citation needed]} This view was further encouraged by rumors, denied by Zhirinovsky,^[2] that he was an agent of the KGB and that the LDPR was a farcical creation meant to either discredit or distract earnest opposition to the government. Such impressions would last even as the Soviet Union was dissolved and the Russian Communist Party itself was thrown into an opposition role.

Nonetheless, the Liberal-Democratic Party remained an important force in Russian politics. At the height of its fortunes, the LDPR gathered 23% of the vote in the 1993 Duma elections and achieved a broad representation throughout the country – the LDPR being the top vote-getter in 64 out of 87 regions. This fact encouraged Zhirinovsky to once again vie for the presidential office, this time against incumbent Boris Yeltsin. The fact that Yeltsin's candidacy seemed seriously challenged by Russian nationalist groups and a rejuvenated Communist Party alarmed many outside observers, particularly in the Western world, who were concerned that such developments posed a serious threat to the survival of Russian democracy, already in a very fragile state. Zhirinovsky became a focal point of harsh criticism and seemed to be the living embodiment of authoritarianism and militarism in modern Russia. While some observers were inclined to consider his controversial statements as stark efforts to drum up nationalist support and should not be viewed as anything more serious than electoral fodder meant for domestic consumption, there was great consternation at the fact that in February 1996, months before a presidential election, Zhirinovsky placed second in opinion polls, behind Communist Gennady Zyuganov and ahead of Boris Yeltsin. In the end, however, Zhirinovsky placed fifth with a 5.7% share in the first round of voting. Since then, the party's fortunes have somewhat stabilized, with the 2003 election seeing a LDPR vote share of 11.7%. In 2004, Zhirinovsky declined to even be nominated by the party, leaving that role to Oleg Malyshkin, who received a nearly negligible portion of the vote.

For his own part, Zhirinovsky has done a great deal to foster a reputation as a loud and boisterous populist who speaks on behalf of the Russian nation and people, even when the things he says are precisely what many people, at home or abroad, do not want to hear. Zhirinovsky infamously promised voters in 1991 that if he were elected, free vodka would be distributed to all. Similarly, he once remarked, during a political rally inside a Moscow department store, that if he were made president, underwear would be freely available.^[15] Zhirinovsky has on several occasions been involved in altercations with other politicians and debate opponents. As a candidate, he also took part in the 2000 and 2008 presidential elections, promising a "police state",^[13] and to institute summary executions. While some commentators call Zhirinovsky a fascist, or a neo-fascist,^[16][17][18] some others dismiss him as a mere "clown"^[19][20][21] and the Kremlin's willing political tool to neutralize the right-wing voter potential – and, for a time being, also a radical "bogeyman" for the West.^[13]

Controversies[link]

This article's Criticism or Controversy section may compromise the article's neutral point of view of the subject. Please integrate the section's contents into the article as a whole, or rewrite the material. (November 2009)

Zhirinovsky speaking on a pre-election meeting in 1999

Racist remarks[link]

Zhirinovsky has expressed admiration for the 1996 United States presidential election contender Pat Buchanan, referring positively to a comment in which Buchanan labeled the United States Congress "Israeli-occupied territory" and said that both countries were "under occupation" and that "to survive, we could set aside places on U.S. and Russian territories to deport this small but troublesome tribe." Buchanan strongly rejected this endorsement, saying he would provide safe haven to persecuted minorities if Zhirinovsky were ever elected Russia's president, eliciting a harsh response by Zhirinovsky: "You soiled your pants as soon as you got my congratulations. Who are you afraid of? Zionists?"^[22] Zhirinovsky repeatedly denied his father's Jewishness until he published Ivan Close Your Soul in July 2001, describing how his father, Volf Isaakovich Eidelshtein, changed his surname from Eidelshtein to Zhirinovsky. He rhetorically asked, "Why should I reject Russian blood, Russian culture, Russian land, and fall in love with the Jewish people only because of that single drop of blood that my father left in my mother's body?"^[6]

Besides expressing his hatred for Turks and Caucasians,^[23] Zhirinovsky also called for the deportation of all Chinese from Russian Far East.^[24] During the 1992 visit to the United States, Zhirinovsky called on television "for the preservation of the white race" and warned that the white Americans were in danger of turning their country over to black and Hispanic people.^[19]

Foreign relations[link]

Zhirinovsky is well known for his boasts pertaining to other countries, having expressed a desire to reunite countries of the ex-Soviet "near abroad" with Russia to within the Russia's borders of 1900 (including Finland and Poland). He has advocated forcibly retaking Alaska from the United States (which would then become "a great place to put the Ukrainians"), turning Kazakhstan into "Russia's back yard", and provoking wars between the clans and the nations of the former Soviet Union and occupying what will remain of it when the wars are over.^[25] Zhirinovsky, who encourages separatism within the Russian minority in the Baltic countries,^[13] endorsed the forcible re-occupation of these countries and said nuclear waste should be dumped there.^[25][26]

Zhirinovsky hailed what he described as "the democratic process" in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, whom he supported strongly. The friendship dated at least until the first Persian Gulf War in 1991, during which time Zhirinovsky sent several armed volunteers from the "Falcons of Zhirinovsky" group to support the Iraqi president. Allegations have dogged Zhirinovsky closely since the fall of Baghdad that he personally profited from illicit oil sales as part of the Oil-for Food scandal, a charge investigated in 2005 by the Independent Inquiry Committee into the Oil-for-Food Programme (Volcker Commission) and the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI).^[27] He is also close to the Serbian nationalist leader and war crimes suspect Vojislav Šešelj.^[25]

Zhirinovsky said he's dreaming of a day "when Russian soldiers can wash their boots in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and switch to year-round summer uniforms"^[28] following Russia's conquest of Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey and occupation of the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.^[23] He also declared that Bulgaria should annex the Republic of Macedonia, and said that Romania is an artificial state supposedly created by Italian Gypsies who seized territory from Russia, Bulgaria and Hungary.^[20]

Russia’s southern neighbor Georgia has been another frequent target of Zhirinovsky’s rhetoric. After Aslan Abashidze was ousted from power in 2004 as leader of Ajara, an autonomous Georgian region, Zhirinovsky worried that similar revolutions would occur in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.^[29] Highly critical of Georgia’s pro-Western line,^[30] he is an energetic supporter of the Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia; in a high-profile incident in August 2004, he departed on a campaign to promote a tourist season in Abkhazia aboard a cruise ship which was briefly intercepted by a Georgian coast guard vessel.^[31] After war broke out between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Zhirinovsky argued in favor of Russian recognition of Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence. "We should have taken the whole territory of Georgia under control," he complained, and "arrested all Georgian officers and taken them here, like to Guantanamo, arrested Saakashvili and handed him over for trial by a military tribunal and gone to the border with Turkey."^[32] In 2009, he called the decision to hold NATO military exercises in Georgia during Soviet Victory Day celebrations in Moscow a "total revision of the history of the Great Patriotic War" and suggested that Russia should respond by conducting large-scale joint military drills with Cuba and Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea.^[33]

Zhirinovsky has been expelled from Bulgaria for insulting its president and was barred from entry to Germany.^[34] In 2005, Kazakhstan declared Zhirinovsky persona non grata on the territory of his historical homeland, due to the politician's controversial speech about the change of the Russia-Kazakhstan border, in which he questioned the Kazakhs' place in history.^[35]

In 2006, Zhirinovsky became persona non grata also in Ukraine, following his statements regarding the January 2006 Russia-Ukraine gas dispute (this ban was revoked in 2007). In reaction to Condoleezza Rice's criticism of Russian foreign policy during the dispute, Zhirinovsky stated that "Condoleezza Rice needs a company of soldiers [and] needs to be taken to barracks where she would be satisfied."^[36] At the film premiere of the film Taras Bulba in 2009 he stated: “Everyone who sees the film will understand that Russians and Ukrainians are one people – and that the enemy is from the West".^[37] In February 2010 Zhirinovsky claimed that Eastern Ukraine would become part of Russia “in five years" claiming that "the population is largely Russian” and called President-elect of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych “basically Russian” (Yanukovych's father was an ethnic Belarusian^[38] and Yanukovych refers to himself as Ukrainian^[39]).^[40]

On the November 2006 death by poisoning of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko in London, Zhirinovsky said: "Any traitor must be eliminated using any methods. If you have joined the special services to work, then you should work, but to betray, to run away abroad, to give up the secrets you learned while working – all of this looks bad."^[41][42] Sergei Abeltsev, Zhirinovsky's former bodyguard and State Duma member from the LDPR, added: "The deserved punishment reached the traitor. I am sure his terrible death will be a warning to all the traitors that in Russia the treason is not to be forgiven. I would recommend to citizen Berezovsky to avoid any food at the commemoration for his crime accomplice Litvinenko."^[43] In the 2007 election, political patronage from Zhirinovsky enabled Litvinenko murder suspect Andrei Lugovoi to win election to the Russian parliament and thus the formal parliamentary immunity.^[21] He also accused Great Britain (according to him, "the most barbaric country on the planet") of fomenting the World War I, the October Revolution, World War II, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.^[44]

Writing about Marine Le Pen he said that she could outdo her father because "Instead of saying that Islam is terrorism, she simply insists that France is a secular nation that will not stand for hundreds of thousands of Muslims practicing their religious traditions. With this argument, Marine has cleverly defended the French people's right to a secular nation." In that vein he said that she has the "chance to represent the French majority."^[45]

Nuclear threats[link]

In 1999, at the start of the Second Chechen War, Zhirinovsky, the ardent supporter of the first war in Chechnya in the mid-1990s, advocated hitting some Chechen villages with tactical nuclear weapons.^[46] He has also advocated using nuclear weapons and naval blockade-imposed starvation in a case of Russia's war against Japan.^[25] In 2008, during the resulting political row between the United Kingdom and Russia, he suggested dropping nuclear bombs over the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to flood Britain.^[13] Among his early threats, Zhirinovsky claimed Russia possesses "Elipton," a weapon of mass destruction supposedly more powerful than nuclear weapons. Zhirinovsky allegedly used Elipton in Serbia with resulting deaths.^[20]

Personal violence[link]

Zhirinovsky also has a history of igniting personal violence in political contexts. In his notorious debate with Boris Nemtsov in 1995 a "juice fight" broke out.^[47] In 2003, Zhirinovsky engaged in a fistfight after a television debate with Mikhail Delyagin.^[48] In 2005, Zhirinovsky ignited a brawl in the parliament by spitting at a Rodina party legislator, Andrei Saveliyev.^[49] In 2008, he has showed himself shooting a rifle at the targets representing his political rivals.^[13] During the 2008 televised presidential debate, he threatened Nikolai Gotsa, the representative of Democratic Party of Russia candidate Andrei Bogdanov with violence, saying he's going to "smash his head" and ordering his bodyguard to "shoot that bastard over there in the corridor". Gotsa sued Zhirinovsky in civil court for 1 million rubles (approximately US$38,000) in damages and eventually received a judgment of 30,000 rubles (approximately US$1,150).^[50]

Donkey video for 2012 presidential election[link]

Other controversies[link]

In 2006, in answer to the Ramzan Kadyrov's support for polygamy in Chechnya, Zhirinovsky said it should be applied across Russia.^[51] To eradicate bird flu, he proposed arming all of Russia's population and ordering them and the troops to shoot down the migrant birds returning to Russia from wintering.^[52] He has also threatened to remove restrictions on arms sales to Iran and proposed to sell the disputed Kurile Islands to Japan for ,0b.^[34]

References[link]

External links[link]

• (Russian) Liberal Democratic Party of Russia website
• Zhirinovsky's 2007 political manifesto (in Russian and English)
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Vladimir Zhirinovsky in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Vladimir Zhirinovsky at the Notable Names Database
• Vladimir Zhirinovsky collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Hello, I Must Be Going, TIME, 10 January 1994
• Zhirinovsky: Russia's political eccentric, BBC News, 10 March 2000
• The trademark Zhirinovsky is up for grabs in Russia, International Herald Tribune, 10 July 2007
• ZHIRINOVSKY'S FOLLIES: Nuclear Threats and Busty Ladies in the Race for Second-Place in Russia, Der Spiegel, 28 February 2008
• Zhirinovsky backed "Julia-2". Elena Berkova ready

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