MOSCOW -- Funeral services have been held for Russian ultranationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died this week at the age of 75 after a prolonged illness.
A Mass at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior was held for the firebrand politician on April 8, after which an open-casket ceremony was held in the historic House of the Unions, where Joseph Stalin lay in state in 1953.
In a rare public appearance since Russia launched its unprovoked war against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin laid a bouquet of red roses near the coffin and bowed his head for a moment of silence for Zhirinovsky, who was once a foe but later was seen as part of the "systemic opposition" that Putin used to advance his goals while keeping up the appearance of democracy and pluralism.
The Kazakhstan-born Zhirinovsky, known for his nationalist and often outlandish rhetoric, 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.
In the 1990s he advocated using nuclear weapons against Russia's Chechnya region at the start of the Second Chechen War.
He has also called for forcibly retaking Alaska from the United States and for restoring Moscow's control over former Soviet states and the incorporation of Kazakhstan into Russia.
No details on the cause of death was given, but Zhirinovsky had been in a Moscow hospital since early February after testing positive for COVID-19 and developing pneumonia.
