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Putin attends funeral service for nationalist Zhirinovsky

AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday paid his respects at the memorial service of ultra-nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whose death at age 75 was announced this week.

Hundreds of ordinary Russians — including many young people — came to pay their last respects to the politician who had urged authorities to bomb Ukraine.

An eccentric political showman, Zhirinovsky co-founded and led the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), one of the main forces in the country’s parliament, since 1990.

After mass in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, an open casket ceremony was held with Putin laying a bouquet of red roses near the coffin and bowing his head for a moment of silence. 

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The ceremony took place in the Moscow Hall of Columns, where Joseph Stalin lay in state in 1953.

Late last year Zhirinovsky appeared to predict Russia’s military action in Ukraine and urged Russian forces to strike the pro-Western country.

“I very much respected this man,” said Svetlana Gorodnyatskaya, a 55-year-old member of the LDPR party, crying. “This is simply an irreparable loss both for politics and for our entire country.”

Kseniya Vygovskaya, a 22-year-old graduate student, praised Zhirinovsky for standing up for Russia’s interests.

“Vladimir Volfovich is one of those people who sincerely loved his homeland, who sincerely wished it prosperity,” she said, referring to him by his name and patronymic.

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Zhirinovsky was later buried at Moscow’s prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery. 

His critics despised him for being the Kremlin’s token opponent who helped channel discontent. Since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its subsequent stand-off with the West, Zhirinovsky had shifted into making anti-Kyiv public speeches.

Anti-Kremlin political observer Sergei Medvedev said the politician was not worth a “single kind word.”

“His talented, carefully calculated and generously paid buffoonery gave rise to modern Russian fascism,” Medvedev said this week.

Known for his brash, confrontational style and eyebrow-raising antics, Zhirinovsky had been a permanent fixture on the Russian political scene for the past three decades and thrived on controversy.

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Zhirinovsky took part in all of post-Soviet Russia’s presidential elections and had been a member of parliament since 1993, when his party scored a major success with nearly 23 percent of the vote.

Often described as a clown in Russian political circles, he was known for his fiery anti-American, anti-liberal and anti-communist speeches.

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International

Paraguay summons Brazilian ambassador over Itaipú espionage scandal

Paraguay summoned the Brazilian ambassador in Asunción on Tuesday to demand “explanations” and called its own representative in Brasília for consultations following Brazil’s acknowledgment of an espionage operation. The Brazilian government, led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, attributed the operation to the previous administration.

The surveillance effort aimed to uncover Paraguay’s position in now-suspended negotiations with Brazil regarding the pricing of electricity from the binational Itaipú hydroelectric plant, according to reports in the Brazilian press.

The Brazilian government “categorically denied any involvement in the intelligence operation,” stating in a Foreign Ministry communiqué on Monday that the espionage was carried out under former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration (2019-2023).

“The operation was authorized by the previous government in June 2022 and was annulled by the interim director of the (state intelligence agency) ABIN on March 27, 2023, as soon as the current administration became aware of it,” Brazil’s government asserted.

Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez announced that Brazilian Ambassador José Antonio Marcondes de Carvalho was summoned “to provide detailed explanations” regarding the operation. Additionally, Paraguay recalled its diplomatic representative in Brasília “to report on aspects related to the intelligence activity conducted by Brazil regarding Paraguay’s government affairs.”

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International

Elon Musk to step down as government advisor, per Trump insiders

President Donald Trump has informed his inner circle that Elon Musk will be stepping down from his role as a government advisor, according to a report by Politico today.

Citing three individuals close to Trump, Politico states that the president is pleased with Musk’s leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he has implemented significant budget cuts. However, both have agreed that it is time for Musk to return to his businesses and support Trump from a different position outside the government.

A senior administration official told Politico that Musk will likely maintain an informal advisory role and continue to be an occasional visitor to the White House. Another source warned that anyone thinking Musk will completely disappear from Trump’s circle is “deluding themselves.”

According to the sources, this transition is expected to coincide with the end of Musk’s tenure as a “special government employee,” a temporary status that exempts him from certain ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations. This 130-day period is set to expire in late May or early June.

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International

Milei vows to make Argentina so strong that Falkland Islanders “choose” to join

Argentine President Javier Milei reaffirmed his country’s claim over the Falkland Islands (known as the Islas Malvinas in Argentina) and praised the role of the nation’s armed forces during a ceremony marking the “Veterans and Fallen Soldiers of the Malvinas War Day,” commemorating 43 years since the 1982 conflict with the United Kingdom.

Argentina continues to assert sovereignty over the islands, arguing that Britain unlawfully seized them in 1833.

“If sovereignty over the Malvinas is the issue, we have always made it clear that the most important vote is the one cast with one’s feet. We hope that one day, the Malvinas residents will choose to vote with their feet and join us,” Milei stated.

“That is why we aim to become a global power—so much so that they would prefer to be Argentine, making deterrence or persuasion unnecessary. This is why we have embarked on a path of liberation, working to make Argentina the freest country in the world and once again the nation with the highest GDP per capita on the planet,” he added.

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