Russian Politician Zhirinovsky laid to rest in Moscow

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - APRIL 8: Funeral services were held in Moscow on Friday (Apr. 8) for Russian ultranationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky who died this week at the age of 75.He was buried in Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery.Zhirinovsky had been receiving treatment in the hospital he was taken to in Moscow since February 2, after testing positive for COVID-19 and developing pneumonia.After a mass at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, an open-casket ceremony was held in the historic House of the Unions, where Joseph Stalin lay in state in 1953.One of the leading figures in Russian politics and known for his anti-Western rhetoric, Zhirinovsky was born on April 26, 1946, in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan.He graduated from Moscow State University, Institute of Asian and African Countries, and completed his law degree in 1977.Zhirinovsky began his career in 1983 as head of the legal unit at Mir publishing company, and he ran for president five times but never received a double-digit share of the vote.In one of his last public statements, he suggested on national television in late December 2021 that the Russian military bomb Ukraine on New Year's Eve. (Footage by Evgeni Bugubaev/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)