Russia: Vladimir Zhirinovsky Beat

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russia’s top ultranationalist, tried to make nice with the rest of the world last week.

Sunday: “No changes of Poland’s border will be made,” he said on a visit to the first congress of a small Polish right-wing group. BORING ZHIRINOVSKY, a Polish newspaper headlined its story: “Vladimir Volfovich did not violate borders yesterday, he drank within limits, loved Poles and went to bed after the banquet.” Tuesday: Presented Richard Nixon with a copy of his autobiography, The Last March South, inscribed, “Don’t support the losers in the last elections — there’s no future in it.” A copy for President Clinton contained this message: “I don’t want to be misunderstood by you.” Wednesday: Announced a Liberal Democratic Party congress: “We have invited everybody … from Iraq and Serbia, from North Korea … we have friends everywhere.”