Vladimir Zhironovsky orders 2 male aides to 'violently rape' pregnant journalist during press conf

Russia: A Really Horrible Place™

That is truly horrible. Can't think of a punishment too harsh for this piece of garbage.

Holy Crap.

Zhirinovsky today said in a nationwide TV interview:

'When talking to the press in the Duma on Friday, answering questions at the end, I spoke a bit rudely when I replied to a young woman.
'I did not even see her at first, and it turns out that she is in a certain condition, pregnant. I offer my apologies to her and to everyone, if I happened to offend someone...'


I'd say she and everyone in that room were a bit "offended".

God, don't we want justice for this punk?!

What charges can be filed here? There was no actual sexual assault, right? (Although one of the aides did touch her and looked like he leaned in to try and kiss her) but we're talking about his saying completely disgusting and repugnant. It's horrible that he said those things, and if it were say the US, I'd say let's start a campaign to have him removed from office, or pressure him to resign. But in that country, is there any real recourse?

Vince524 said:

What charges can be filed here?

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It's a dictatorship. As such, if the dictator wishes charges to be filed, charges will be filed; and if he doesn't, they won't. What the charges would actually be is irrelevant, I fear.

Zhirinovsky? Hadn't heard of that asshole in years.

He was a co-founder of the Liberal-Democratic Party. I'm not sure what those words mean in Russia, but Zhirinovsky's positions and statements tended to be authoritarian, ultra-nationalistic, militaristic, racist, misogynist, and anti-Jewish (including denying that his father was a Jew).

Awesome dude.

What the fucking fuck?

America's scummy rape commenters got nothing on Russia. Why do they tolerate this? Surely Putin would want to distant himself from this.

Alessandra Kelley said:

Russia has been ramping up the crazy about Ukraine for a couple of months now, with a bizarre, patriotic, WWII-invoking misinformation campaign painting Ukraine as a land of apocalyptic Mad Max struggles between evil Ukrainian neo-Nazis and stalwart Russian heroes.

Mr. Zhirinovsky seems like a piece of work. And that's layered on top of the heightened emotions -- and the crazy alternate reality -- in Russia about Ukraine right now.

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I really don't think even Russia actually believes it. Putin wants to increase Russian borders is all. The rest is just to have some kind of an excuse. 94% of Russians support the intervention of Ukraine. And wasn't there some Russian high-official that said that if a gay man died, his heart needed to be burned and buried because they couldn't be used as transplants? And he got support when he was (barely) criticized?

Quit being a video game villain, Russia.

Re: His "apology": Because it'd be okay to threaten her with rape were she not pregnant.

Wtf.

*incoherent sounds of rage*

Zhironovsky

See what can happen when there's no freedom of speech? As in everything, repression breeds perversion.

Alessandra Kelley said:

Eh, we have crazy-talking molestation-obsessed politicians in the US too.

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"Just remember, Roger, some girls, they rape so easy."-Representative Roger Rivard

MrNumbahOne said:

What the fucking fuck?

America's scummy rape commenters got nothing on Russia. Why do they tolerate this? Surely Putin would want to distant himself from this.

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That would mean standing up for decency and (even worse) The Press.

Remember, this is Putin we're talking about here. He probably gave Zhironovsky a medal for putting them in their place (women and The Press, they got a two-for-one on this).

Since the days of Czar Peter the Great, Russia has pined for cultural acceptance and respect from the West. Yet, somehow, they keep coming up with people like this guy, and Putin, with his tacit support of officially-sanctioned homophobia. Among other atrocities.

I don't have an answer.

caw

blacbird said:

Since the days of Czar Peter the Great, Russia has pined for cultural acceptance and respect from the West. Yet, somehow, they keep coming up with people like this guy, and Putin, with his tacit support of officially-sanctioned homophobia. Among other atrocities.

I don't have an answer.

caw

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I think one of the things we forget is that Russia is not the West.

For a while, it seemed they might be. With Gorbachev and Glasnost and a large segment of the Russian population turning toward the West, and seeming to embrace Western cultural values, it looked like things were changing and they were on a path to becoming a different country.

But there has always been undercurrent of Russian nationalism, of building a Slavic society that is as powerful as the west but not of the west. At that nationalism has seemed to have taken over with a vengeance.

In the middle east, we have finally come to realize that it is a different culture and to expect them to be just like us is foolish. And although Russia is an industrial society, believing that they are just like us, holding the same cultural values and having the same aspirations is equally foolish.

Vladimir Putin is a terrible person. But let's not forget, he is extremely popular in Russia – possibly because of, not in spite of his autocratic ways. He is the face of the new Russia. And this new Russia seems very similar to a very old Russia.

I'm almost surprised that he hasn't been declared a Czar at this point. It'd probably only increase his popularity.

rugcat said:

I think one of the things we forget is that Russia is not the West.

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Nor was it ever conquered by Napoleon. I think that has been a major impediment to development in Russia. It was after the fall of Napoleon that the conquered-by-Napoleon Austrian-Hungarian Empire radically introduced Enlightenment and industrialisation to many nations that hadn't had it before (Baltics, Halych-Volynia.) The introduction of Marxism into Russia, apart from an attempt to even out the vast income disparities, was introducing the reforms that Napoleon had forced upon the rest of Europe and what the Decembrists had attempted to get Tsar Alexander I to put in place. There was some success, there were some failures. It is now where it is.

rugcat said:

In the middle east, we have finally come to realize that it is a different culture and to expect them to be just like us is foolish. And although Russia is an industrial society, believing that they are just like us, holding the same cultural values and having the same aspirations is equally foolish.

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True. And for that matter, assuming everyone in the west holds the same cultural values as most of us do is also an exercise in futility.

I would not put this kind of behavior completely past some of our own democratically elected officials (or certain media icons), to be honest.