Veteran nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky was involved in a brawl with a protester in Moscow before being thrown to the ground by another one in an angry crowd.
The Lib Dem chief made a surprise appearance at the unsanctioned protest rally against raising the pension age, which was held by supporters of opposition figure Aleksey Navalny in central Moscow on Sunday.
Zhirinovsky claimed that he attended the event to join protests against the reform draft, but he received a hostile reception from demonstrators, who booed him and repeatedly called him a “clown.”
The veteran politician lost his temper, promising to summon “10,000 policemen” to disperse the crowd. He then chased one of the protesters, losing one of his shoes in the process. Another protester then repeatedly called Zhirinovsky “a piece of sh*t,” prompting the politician to attack him as well.
He did not escape Zhirinovsky’s wrath, falling to the ground before being surrounded by the politician’s aides. “I’ll hit you right to your skull! You will bleed, you scoundrel!” Zhirinovsky can be heard saying in video footage from the scene. He then hit the man in the face. The pair also exchanged insults, with Zhirinovsky demanding that the man produce his passport and calling him a “provocateur.”
After the incident an outraged protester in the crowd on Pushkin Square struck the politician on his legs, making Zhirinovsky lose his balance and fall to the ground.
Zhirinovsky's LDPR party explained his actions with the rude and disrespectful words against him and “Russian people” in general, produced by a Ukrainian man. The founder and leader of LDPR himself, however, is well known for repeatedly engaging into brawls with fellow politicians and is quick to lose his temper.
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