Putting aside his complaints about dismal service and a two-hour breakfast wait at the Plaza Hotel in New York, Vladimir Zhirinovsky sang praises Wednesday of the United States as a paragon of democracy.


The flamboyant nationalist leader told a press conference that his visit was very well organized by the American side, and that the U.S. press treated him fairly.


"They wrote what they wanted about me, but they let me speak out," Zhirinovsky said. "That is an example of true democracy."


He spoke wistfully of the live shows that major U.S. television stations did with him, saying that in Russia he and members of his party cannot get on local television stations no matter how hard they try.


But Zhirinovsky's praise of American democracy went farther than accolades to the fairness of the press -- which he had often attacked vehemently on previous occasions as a mouthpiece of the CIA.


"Two years after the presidential election Americans have had a chance to change their viewpoint on who they want to see in power," Zhirinovsky said, speaking of the recent U.S. elections that brought a landslide victory to the Republican Party, which won control of both houses of Congress.


"Now, that's what we would like to see in this country," he said, referring to his oft-repeated demand for early presidential and parliamentary elections.


As for his run-in with the Plaza, which declared him persona non grata last weekend after a dispute over his bill, Zhirinovsky said Russians should note he did not admire everything about America.


"[President Boris] Yeltsin saw the Statue of Liberty and a well-stocked supermarket," he said.


"Well, I saw all that, too, but I also saw some things that weren't that great."