Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky has died after a serious and prolonged illness,
The speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament Vyacheslav Volodin today said the 75-year-old had died in a Moscow hospital.
Zhirinovsky was renowned for provocative stunts and anti-Western tirades which kept him in the public eye for more than three decades.
Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, called Zhirinovsky “a bright, talented politician” and “a man who deeply understood how the world works and foresaw many things” in a Telegram post confirming his death.
The politician made headlines in February 2022 after correctly predicting the exact date of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a speech made on December 27, 2021.
Speaking in December, Zhirinovsky said: "At 4am on February 22, you will feel [our new policy]. I would like 2022 to be a peaceful year.
"But I love the truth, for 70 years I have been telling the truth. It will not be peaceful.
"It will be a year when Russia becomes great again."
Volodin announced doctors were fighting to save the life of the veteran Russian nationalist politician on March 25.
He made the statement after inaccurate reports emerged claiming Zhirinovsky had died.
Russian media reports claim Zhirinovsky has been in declining health for some time and was gravely ill for weeks after contracting Covid-19, despite having received eight doses of the vaccine.
Zhirinovsky was the founder and leader of the far-right LDPR for more than 30 years.
In recent years, he has been dubbed "Russia's Trump" and his political style has been compared to the former US president.
The Russian political showman was best known for proposing provocative policies such as the military conquest of Central Asia and the Middle East, bombarding the Baltic States with toxic waste and dropping nuclear bombs on Japan and Britain.
He was also known for controversial personal antics such as physically attacking political opponents and on one occasion allegedly instructing aides to rape a pregnant journalist.
Zhirinovsky managed to remain relevant throughout three decades of turbulent politics in Russia and became symbolic of Moscow's "systemic" opposition.
Some theorized that some of Zhirinovsky’s outlandish proposals were trial balloons planted by a Kremlin looking to test the waters before adopting them itself.
His political zenith came in 1993 when LDPR topped the polls in the State Duma election winning 23% of the vote.
But his success was short-lived and his party came fifth in the 1996 presidential election.
Zhirinovsky has written several books during his life and released an album for the 20th anniversary of his party's founding on which he performed a number of popular Russian songs.
