- published: 10 Feb 2016
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The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (Russian: Либерально-Демократическая Партия России (ЛДПР), Liberal'no-Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii (LDPR)) is a political party in Russia. Since its founding in 1991, it has been led by the charismatic and controversial figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Opposing both communism and the "wild" capitalism of the 1990s, the party scored a major success in the 1993 Russian Duma elections, receiving a plurality vote. In the elections in 2007, the party received 8.14% of the vote, giving it 40 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. In the most recent 2011 elections, they increased their percentage to 11.4%. The party's brand and organization are centered around the personality of its leader Zhirinovsky.
Despite the party's name, it is frequently described as "neither liberal nor democratic." While the party describes itself as centrist and reformist, it is usually regarded as far-right and is identified with Russian ultranationalism, right-wing populism (or "national populism") and conservativism. Its ideology is based primarily on Zhirinovsky's ideas of "imperial reconquest" (a "renewed Russian Empire") and authoritarian vision of a 'Greater Russia.'"