Robert Bridge
Zhirinovsky's last prophesy has probably perked up some ears in the Washington Beltway, Robert Bridge writes.
Most people know the colorful leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) as something of a court jester who for year has got away with saying the things nobody else would dare. At the same time, however, he has a lesser known track record for predicting events, and his latest one should give the United States tremendous pause.
Born in Almaty, then the capital of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan, on April 25, 1946, Zhirinovsky moved to Moscow in 1964 where he went on to receive several degrees, including in law and philosophy. In 1991, he was leading founder of the LDPR, which was at the time the first accredited opposition party in the Soviet Union. Several months later, Zhirinovsky became a household name in the world of politics as he placed third in the presidential elections, having attracted over 6 million votes.
Although many pages could be written about the LDPR leader's notorious tirades that have become legendary (suffice it to say that his unfiltered opinions managed to get him declared persona non grata even in Kazakhstan, his homeland, after proposing alterations to the Russia-Kazakh border), the purpose here is to consider his predictions, some of which are startling in their accuracy.
Aside from predicting in 2004 that America's next president will be a "black man and a Muslim" - not too far off the mark considering that Barack Obama's middle name is 'Hussein' - and that an 'Islamic State' will soon rise up in the Middle East, Zhirinovsky also predicted a "revolution" for Ukraine back in 2012.
"Wherever there is a revolution, that means the leaders are idiots who don't understand anything," he remarked with his trademark blunt-force candor. "Ukraine too will have a revolution."
Even earlier, back in 1998, Zhirinovsky clearly foresaw the unavoidable problems that would come to haunt Russia and Ukraine, manipulated as the latter was by the Western hemisphere. This was more of an 'educated hunch,' but noteworthy nonetheless.
"Because there is no [secession] treaty between Russia and Ukraine, Kiev will never be accepted into NATO or the EU, until that time that they solve territorial questions," he said in a speech in the Duma, before adding that "everything that is happening in the Ukraine today, is done by Western powers. They're doing everything to prevent it from remaining in our alliance."
It's no secret that an army of Western agencies, notably the U.S. Aid for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), practically wrote Ukraine's domestic and foreign policy for years. These two fronts for 'democratic renewal' invested millions of dollars into local NGOs to carry out the prescribed 'political activities,' like making sure Kiev was never tempted into building better relations with Russia. And this isn't taking into account the $5 billion that Victoria Nuland admitted Washington had spent in Ukraine up until the moment of the political coup; such an amount of money never comes without serious chains attached. This hefty Western influence was responsible for the violent overthrow of the democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych, as well as the civil strife between Western and Eastern Ukraine that has led to the dramatic events we are witnessing today.
But Zhirinovsky was just warming up.
In perhaps his most impressive impersonation of Nostradamus to date, the excitable statesman predicted in a speech last year the events that would eventually come to pass in February of this year.
"I would have liked for 2022 to be a peaceful year," he pronounced. "But I prefer the truth - I've spoke the truth for 75 years."
"This will not be a peaceful year. It will be a year in which Russia once again becomes a great power," he railed in his typical combative style that many people have come to excuse with a shrug of the shoulders. "The alternative is that they shut us up and begin to exterminate Russians - in the Donbass first, and then in Western Russia. So in this regard, let's support this new direction in Russia's foreign policy."
However, not only did the firebrand predict that 2022 would "not be a peaceful year," he predicted almost down to the day and time when the start of Russia's special operation in Ukraine would occur: "You'll see at 4 a.m. on February 22," he said, missing the real date of Russia's start of its special operation by a mere 48 hours.
Considering such a track record with his predictions, whether they are the result of 'educated guesses,' great intuition or long evenings at the soothsayers, it's hard to say, but Zhirinovsky's last prophesy has probably perked up some ears in the Washington Beltway.
On January 19, 2022, Zhirinovsky delivered one of his typical tirades, this one about the future demise of none other than the most powerful nation on the planet. Speaking about the United States, the Russian politician noted that Donald Trump "no longer says 'Make America Great Again."
"Now he says 'We will save America.' That's right, Trump, but unfortunately you won't be able to save it. There won't be elections in 2024, because there will be no America. He can continue playing golf."
Considering the trajectory of the United States of the last decade, which has seen the country become politically divided over 'irreconcilable differences,' while nearly ungovernable amid an open border combined with rampant crime and poverty, it will be interesting to see how this prediction pans out. There seem to be forces at the work in the United States, not least of all far-left radicals who pledge allegiance to 'Cultural Marxist' teachings, that have absolutely no desire to see the country succeed. These considerations, taken together with Vladimir Zhirinovsky's uncanny ability to 'foresee the political future', as it were, seem to indicate bad times ahead for the U.S. Only time will tell.