Vladimir Zhirinovsky's donkey video

Background

Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky, born in 1946, is a veteran of Russian politics who has participated in five Russian presidential elections. He is the founder and long-standing leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Despite its name and its proclaimed centrist and reformist outlook, the party is frequently described as "neither liberal nor democratic." It is usually regarded as far-right and is identified with Russian ultranationalism, right-wing populism, or national populism and conservatism. Its ideology is based primarily on Zhirinovsky's ideas of "imperial reconquest" (a "renewed Russian Empire") and authoritarian vision of a 'Greater Russia.'"

Zhirinovsky is "often viewed as something of a clown" and "a showman of Russian politics, blending populist and nationalist rhetoric, anti-Western invective and a brash, confrontational style". His campaign slogan for 2012 was "Vote Zhirinovsky, or things will get worse".

Eventually, in the 2012 Russian presidential election, Zhirinovsky was fourth with 6.22% of the votes, behind Prokhorov, who received 7.94%.

Content, controversy, discussions, and secondary usage

The thirty second video was released on the Internet on 6 February 2012, as a part of Zhirinovsky's election campaign. The video is titled "Troika" at the official site of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.

In the video, Zhirinovsky is seen wearing a black fur coat and a black ushanka hat, and sits in a sleigh harnessed with the black donkey. Zhirinovsky begins to speak, claiming that the "little wretched donkey is the symbol of Russia" and that if he, Zhirinovsky, would become the President, a "daring troika" would return as a symbol of Russia. While making the proclamation, Zhirinovsky whips the animal. As the donkey does not immediately pull, Zhirinovsky shouts "It cannot move.... The whole country got stuck...." and continually shouts "Go! Go! Go!" while furiously whipping the animal into moving across the snow-covered backyard of his dacha. A voice-over concludes the video: "Zhirinovsky – it will get better!"

The video was widely discussed on the Internet. It received mostly negative reactions from Russian users. The video also featured on Channel One's comedy show Yesterday Live on 17 March 2012, as part of a spoof news clip from a fictitious US-based TV channel, reporting that, in Russia, there was a shortage of gasoline, with people abandoning cars and resorting to other modes of transportation.

Symbolism

Zhirinovsky explained the meaning of his video on television, saying: "I’d like to explain that many of our citizens are suffering about the past greatness of Russia, i.e., the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union. Today, there is no greatness. And with this clip in 30 seconds I wanted to show that today it is not the famous troika that [once] galloped [...] Today it is a donkey. That is the thing. Today they smacked down our country, economy, culture, and the Russian language [...] We don’t want this weak animal to be the symbol of Russia." Zhirinovsky referred to an explanation of the origin of troika in a televised election debate with Natalya Narochnitskaya. The Troika has become a cultural icon of Russia, especially after it was featured in a scene of Nikolay Gogol's novel Dead Souls, where a "troika-bird" rides through the vast expanses of Russia. Narochnitskaya accused Zhirinovsky of disdain towards the people of Russia, as well as projecting pessimism and aggression through this video. Zhirinovsky replied that the video is an allegory of what the rulers of Russia had made with the country in the last hundred years.

Naming of the donkey

Zhirinovsky stated during a televised election debate with Gennady Zyuganov, another presidential candidate, that the animal seen in the video is called Proshka. Proshka is the diminutive form of the Greek and Slavic name Prokhor; Zhirinovsky stated that the animal is named after Russian presidential candidate, Mikhail Prokhorov. Later Zhirinovsky confirmed the donkey's name as "Proshka, Prokhor" when he participated as a guest in the comedy talk show Prozhektorperiskhilton on Channel One TV.

This incident did not mark the first time Zhirinovsky named a domestic animal after a rival politician. In the same Prozhektorperiskhilton show, Zhirinovsky also said that he once owned a male sheep called "Ben", which was named after the initials of Russian politician, Boris Efimovich Nemtsov, another political opponent.

Allegations of animal cruelty

According to Zhirinovsky, the animal featured in the video was his own – a present given to him on his 60th birthday. He said that it is kept on his dacha land, and has not been used for any work for the last five years. The animal is claimed by Zhirinovsky to be well-fed, to have separate lodgings, and to live in conditions found "nowhere in the world".

International organizations People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and World Society for the Protection of Animals (Now known as World Animal Protection), as well as Russian animal rights activists, have accused Zhirinovsky of cruelty to animals. Zhirinovsky responded to criticism, saying that similar treatment is commonplace in the Arab world and that in fact the animal been treated "better than many people".

The Central Electoral Commission of Russia commented that there is no regulation on whether and how presidential candidates could use animals in propaganda, but that if the candidates do so, they should take all the risks connected with that.