Putin at the funeral of the ultra-nationalist Zhirinovsky

At the funeral, Russian President Vladimir Putin and thousands of people in Moscow bid farewell to prominent politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Putin showed himself on Friday in his first long public appearance in the open coffin. The leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) faction died on Wednesday after more than two months in hospital as a result of contracting coronavirus.

The politician, known as the right-wing agitator, was 75 years old. Zhirinovsky is considered one of Russia’s most dazzling politicians – also for his undiplomatic speeches, which he often gave with a red-faced scream. The right-wing populist ran in presidential elections six times, most recently in 2018, when it ranked third with 5.65 percent. Meanwhile, a power struggle began in Moscow over the successor to the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party, one of the five pro-Kremlin parties in the State Duma.

Zhirinovsky was buried at the celebrity cemetery in the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. It was previously said that he will be buried with his family members at Troekorovo Cemetery. Nevertheless, he himself expressed a desire to be buried in the most famous cemetery in Moscow.