Go back to front pageSAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5, 1994 -- Ultranationalist Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, on his first visit to the United States, will address the World Affairs Council of Northern California in San Francisco Monday, and Council officials anticipate an outpouring of protest.
Zhirinovsky, leader of the largest single faction in Russia's lower house of parliament, has incited angry reactions during his travels throughout the former Soviet Union and Europe. He has been denied visas by several European countries and unceremoniously booted out of others after making fascistic and anti-Semitic statements about his admiration for Hitler and his intention to rebuild a vast Russian empire from the English Channel to Alaska and from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow approved Zhirinovsky's U.S. visa on Nov. 1. It issued a statement calling his views "anathema," but added that U.S. law does "not favor excluding persons on the basis of beliefs, statements or associations."
Zhirinovsky's militant and anti-Western brand of extreme Slavic nationalism has struck a chord among Russian voters, who gave his party, the misnamed Liberal Democrats, 25 percent of the vote in last December's parliamentary elections.
David Fischer, president of the World Affairs Council, wrote in a recent in-house publication that the Council's trustees had unanimously endorsed the decision to allow Zhirinovsky to address the membership, despite objections by several local Jewish organizations.
"We are not paying a fee for his services nor are we in any other way endorsing what he may have to say," said Fisher.
A Council spokesperson said that at least two Bay Area groups were planning protests at Zhirinovsky's scheduled appearance at 5:45 p.m. Monday at the Sheraton Palace Hotel. The expected protests, organized by the Bay Area Council for Jewish Rescue and Renewal and the more militant Jewish Defense League, are aimed both at Zhirinovsky's racist views and at the Council's willingness to provide a forum, said the spokesperson.
The Council's position, said Fisher, is "that we have a responsibility to hear the views of all those who have the potential to influence international affairs."
He noted that Zhirinovsky, who has been alleged to have political and financial ties to former KGB secret police and senior military officials, received up to 75 percent of the presidential vote cast by uniformed security personnel.
The Council spokesperson said that because of the controversy and planned protests, the event at the Sheraton will involve "a lot of security."
Zhirinovsky's San Francisco appearance may be followed by an event in Los Angeles. Earlier plans for an East Coast appearance have been cancelled.
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