Russian far-Right politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, known for provocative stunts and anti-western tirades that kept him in the public eye for more than three decades, has died after a long illness, the Speaker of parliament said on Wednesday.

Zhirinovsky, 75, was admitted to hospital earlier this year after contracting Covid-19, according to Russian media, and was too ill to speak out publicly on the war in Ukraine.

But the grievances he had been voicing since the 1990s found an echo in President Vladimir Putin’s increasingly bitter rhetoric in the run-up to the February 24 invasion, when the Kremlin leader repeatedly accused the West of cheating and deceiving Russia.

“Always, in any audience, in the most heated discussions, he defended the patriotic position, the interests of Russia,” Putin said in a tribute.

Zhirinovsky was known for outrageous and headline-grabbing statements, including threats to launch nuclear weapons against various countries, seize Alaska from the US, and expand Russia’s frontiers to the point where its soldiers could “wash their boots in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean”.

His death was announced in parliament, where lawmakers stood in silence to honour his memory.