The Moscow Times


Nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said Tuesday that he warned former U.S. President Richard Nixon of a possible military coup in the next two weeks while President Boris Yeltsin was on vacation in Sochi.


"It is (comparable) to the coup d'?tat of August 1991," which attempted to oust Mikhail Gorbachev, then president of the Soviet Union, Zhirinovsky said to reporters after the closed meeting, speaking in English.


"One day Gorbachev left Moscow for Foros and did not know what had happened in Moscow and now Yeltsin has gone to Sochi to a resort to have a rest. And his team -- we know their plans for a new coup d'?tat are ready to destroy the Duma" and to establish a dictatorship in Russia.


Zhirinovsky also asked Nixon to give President Bill Clinton a copy of his book, "The Last Push South" and included a personal inscription inside the Russian-language book.


"I wrote that he should not be afraid of me," Zhirinovsky said. "Do not ignore me. It's necessary to have meetings and open discussions."


When Clinton came to Russia in January, he conspicuously failed to meet with Zhirinovsky, whose nationalist party, the inappropriately named Liberal Democratic Party, performed strongly in elections in December.


Nixon and Zhirinovsky met Tuesday afternoon for an 80-minute meeting -- the longest of Nixon's trip -- which was described as "a fact-finding mission by a private citizen."


For weeks, Nixon has stated his intention to meet Zhirinovsky, and that was likely part of the reason Clinton asked Nixon for a briefing on his return.


Zhirinovsky seemed aware of the link to Clinton, speaking on several occasions of his message "for President Bill Clinton relayed by former president Richard Nixon."


Nixon adviser Dmitry Simes said the former U.S. president asked all the questions during the talks and gave little comment except to say that Zhirinovsky "seemed to be in good physical shape" and "was about the same age as (Nixon's) daughters."


Emphasizing that the former president did not agree with Zhirinovsky, Simes said Nixon "was cold, in a listening mode." Zhirinovsky said he "enjoyed the talks."


Nixon offered no statement and met immediately afterward with Nikolai Travkin, leader of the Democratic Party of Russia, which is anti-Yeltsin.


In the talks, Zhirinovsky tried to portray himself as opposing racism, but some familiar rhetoric showed through.


Speaking of policies he supports against the large community of people from the Caucasus living in Russia, Zhirinovsky compared the situation to "blacks ruining England," Simes said.


Nixon met earlier with Economics Minister Alexander Shokhin, and Oleg Lobov, secretary of the Security Council.


The two government meetings indicated that Nixon's trip was back on track, following a fiasco last week in which Yeltsin canceled government meetings with Nixon for having met with the former vice president, Alexander Rutskoi.


On Wednesday Nixon is scheduled to fly to Kiev where he plans to meet with Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk.