Eduard Limonov - Political Career

Political Career

In 1991, Limonov returned to Russia from France and became active in politics. He founded a newspaper called Limonka (Russian nickname for the modern lemon-shaped F1 hand grenade; presumably, a play on his pen name Limonov and the explosive nature of the material), and a small, equally radical political party called the National Bolshevik Party. The National Bolshevik Party (NBP) believes in the creation of a grand empire that will include the whole of Europe and Russia, as well as Northern/Central Asia to be governed under Russian dominance. Although the group never managed to obtain an official party status, it remains active in protests on various social and political issues, in particular harshly criticizing the regime of Vladimir Putin. One party program used in the past supports a man's right not to pay attention when his girlfriend talks to him.

In 1996 a Russian court judged in a hearing that the NBP paper Limonka had disseminated illegal and immoral information: "in essence, E. V. Limonov (Savenko) is an advocate of revenge and mass terror, raised to the level of state policy." The court decided to recommend issuing an official warning to Limonka, to investigate the possibility of examining whether Limonov could be held legally responsible, and to publish its decision in Rossiiskaia gazeta.

In the 2000s Limonov's NBP has liberalized to an extent, even denouncing all xenophobia and antisemitism on its official website. The party is part of Garry Kasparov's United Civil Front. During the 1990s, he supported Bosnian Serbs in the Yugoslav wars; and Abkhaz and Transnistrian secessionists against Georgia and Moldova, respectively.

Limonov was jailed in April, 2001 on charges of terrorism, the forced overthrow of the constitutional order, and the illegal purchase of weapons. Based on an article published in Limonka under Limonov's byline, the government accused Limonov of planning to raise an army to invade Kazakhstan. After one year in jail, his trial was heard in a Saratov court, which also heard appeals from Russian Duma members Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Alexei Mitrofanov and Vasiliy Shandybin for his release. He maintained that the charges were ridiculous and politically motivated, but was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment for the arms purchasing, while the other charges were dropped. He served almost two years before being parolled for good behavior. Following this experience, he wrote a drama on the Russian penitentiary world, "Death in the police van". The stage is a police van in a courtyard of the Butyrka prison, (Pugachev has been a famous inmate); he says that the prison is severely overcrowded (cells meant for ten people are occupied by one hundred, who sleep in shifts), narcotics and alcohol are cheap and easy to procure through the wardens; since usually there is but one needle per cell, AIDS and tubercolosis are rampant. The comparison with the communist prisons, with which the author is well acquainted, is not favorable.

Limonov was a strong supporter of Serbia in the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, and he achieved notoriety by participating in a sniper patrol in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian war. Paweł Pawlikowski's film Serbian Epics includes footage of Limonov travelling to the front lines of Sarajevo in 1992 with Radovan Karadžić, then the Bosnian Serb president and later an accused war criminal. At one stage in the film, Limonov is shown firing a sniper rifle in the direction of the besieged city. When asked about the incident in 2010, Limonov claimed he had been shooting at a firing range and that Pawlikowski had added an extra frame to make it appear that he was shooting at buildings. This explanation has been challenged. On another occasion, Limonov said that he "celebrated his 50th birthday in Kninska Krajina by firing from a Russian-made heavy gun at Croatian Army headquarters".

Limonov was initially an ally of Vladimir Zhirinovsky and was named as Security Minister in a shadow cabinet formed by Zhirinovsky in 1992. However Limonov soon tired of Zhirinovsky's, accusing him of moderateness and of approaching the president and consequently split from him, publishing the book "Limonov against Zhirinovsky" (1994).

On March 3, 2007, Limonov and members of his National Bolshevik Party together with other left and right-wing opposition activists took part in organizing Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March involving scores of people rallying against Vladimir Putin and Valentina Matviyenko's policies. Limonov was detained by police in the very beginning of the rally.

On April 14, 2007 Limonov was arrested after an anti-government rally in Moscow.

On January 31, 2009 Limonov together with a number of members of the National Bolshevik Party were detained by the Police during an Anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow.

An online video posted on 22 April 2010 showed Limonov, Viktor Shenderovich, and Alexander Potkin having sex with the same woman in the same apartment. Shenderovich described this as a honey trap arranged by the Russian government.