9 Feb, 2022
The leader of Russia’s ultra-nationalist LDPR party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who previously alleged that he had received eight rounds of coronavirus shots, has been rushed to a hospital in Moscow with pneumonia, a number of media outlets have reported.
A source told TASS on Wednesday that the 75-year-old politician had been taken to the heavily guarded Central Clinical Hospital, also known as the Kremlin Clinic, where he has reportedly been convalescing for a few days.
According to the interlocutor, he is in “serious condition,” and some say doctors have diagnosed him with fluid in the lungs...
Later in the afternoon, newspaper RBK reported that he had been placed on a ventilator. "He is in a very serious condition, critical. Nobody can gives any guarantees [about a recovery]," it quoted an anonymous respondent "close to the party" as saying...
In December, the politician documented himself getting his seventh Covid-19 jab on his Telegram channel. “Get vaccinated, friends,” he urged. “I’ve already gotten the Sputnik V vaccine, and, this time, CoviVac from the Chumakov Center … in total, it’s my seventh shot since September 2020. And I haven’t been sick with coronavirus once, I feel good.” He has since claimed to have had an eighth injection.
Zhirinovsky, who has led the LDPR since 1992, has consistently polled as Russia's most popular non-government politician...
Despite rolling out the world’s first Covid jab well over a year ago and making shots easily accessible, just over half of Russia’s population is fully immunized, with its inoculation campaign hit hard due to vaccine hesitancy and reluctance. Authorities have repeatedly set out evidence showing that vaccination is the best way for citizens to prevent being seriously ill as a result of the virus.