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For those who do not know him, he's a right-wing nationalist in Russia. Among other things, he states that Russia should take Alaska from the US by force, nuke the Atlantic Ocean to flood Britain, deport all non-white people from Russia, foment separatism in former Soviet republics using their Russian minorities, etc. Basically, he's a crazy person. He's also racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semetic, and all that good stuff.
I know that you think his chances were slim, but I found an article from before the election of who Russians would vote for. http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/11761
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
18%
Dmitry Medvedev
18%
Sergei Ivanov
17%
Gennady Zyuganov
16%
Sergei Glazyev
7%
Vladimir Ryzhkov
5%
Dmitri Rogozin
5%
Mikhail Kasyanov
4%
Grigory Yavlinsky
4%
Against all candidates
35%
As you can see, he was tied with Medvedev, the current president. What would have happened if Zhirinovsky won instead?