Zhirinovsky has always been a fool in the eyes of many Russians. He has been known to make the most outrageous statements. Make note: his party has little to no support from the population--my estimate is less than 3% of people-- and that is because he pays the nationalist card.
They got 11,5% in the last parliamentary elections (2003) and they are the third largest party after Putin’s “United Russia” (37,6%) and the communists (12,6%).