A FEW MINUTES WITH VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY
* The following are excerpts from a Dec. 20 interview with Vladimir Zhirinovsky, conducted by Wendy Sloane and Daniel Sneider. Mr. Zhirinovsky's extreme nationalist Liberal Democratic Party won a quarter of the vote in Dec. 12 parliamentary elections:
On geopolitics
For some reason, the West became scared and decided to destroy this country. But if a third world war is unleashed, [they know the] Russians have nuclear weapons. So then the West decided to resort to another weapon: nationalism. There are about a hundred nations in Russia. Through instigating ethnic strife, [the West] blew up this huge country....
The West will have to choose: either to come to terms with Russians, or to receive a retaliatory blow. This retaliatory blow will not be by means of war. We will resort to the same weapon: nationalism. Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales will secede from Britain, leaving a small England. Corsica will not want to stay within France. And what about Catalonians and Basques in Spain? And so the whole world will be recarved. What will happen to the world then? The answer is chaos, war, the destruction of human civilization. That's why this trend should be stopped. And we in Russia will put an end to it. But no one should interfere.
On Western aid
Russia without much effort could become a normal civilized state and does not need anyone's help. We don't need humanitarian aid. We Russians don't need leftovers and hand-me-downs....
Besides our mineral resources, you are also hunting our brains. The best scientists move to your countries. You gain twice: economically, when you buy raw materials for next to nothing, while our labor is extremely cheap as well. As [Prime Minister Yegor] Gaidar said, every Russian receives about $100 per month while your cleaning ladies are earning about $2,000 per month.
On fascism
There is no such thing as Russian fascism. You won't find a single Russian who considers Russians to be a superior race and who advocate expulsion of aliens. The issue is that Russian markets have been seized by the Caucasian mafia. The main thing in fascism was anti-Semitism. Here in Russia in many cities people are irritated by Caucasian intrusion. Caucasians come from foreign countries, they are ubiquitous: in markets, shops, hotels, restaurants. They misbehave, and in this sense we have feelings similar to those that the Germans have toward the Turks and the French toward Algerians.
On personal heroes
My political ideals are all in Russia.... But as far as Western politicians are concerned, I prefer Bismarck and Frederick the Great in Germany, De Gaulle in France, Roosevelt in the USA, and recently Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain and maybe Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. A woman that has won elections twice, that is very important.