One-on-One with Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Boris Nemtsov

One-on-One, a political talk show hosted by Aleksandr Liubimov (an alumnus of the popular news show Vzgliad and co-founder of the influential media company ViD) aired on Boris Berezovsky’s (1946-2013) ORT network from 1995 to 1997. It pitted two guests against one another to spark heated discussions of political ideas and strategies. The show’s most famous episode came in June 1995, when Liubimov invited Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1946-2022), leader of the (misnamed) Liberal Democratic Party—in reality an ultranationalist, right-wing group— to debate the young reform-minded governor of Nizhny Novgorod, Boris Nemtsov (1959-2015). The discussion took place just days after a group of pro-Chechen terrorists had taken over 1200 people hostage in a hospital in Budennovsk, a city in the Stavropol region of southern Russia. The terrorists demanded an end to the Russian military operation in Chechnya and the beginning of negotiations with Dzhokar Dudaev (1944-1996), the leader of the self-proclaimed independent state of Chechnya. On the show, Nemtsov suggested negotiating with the hostage-takers, while Zhirinovsky insisted that only a military response would be effective. But the debate soon moved beyond strategy and descended into ad hominem attacks. Zhirinovsky was a known flamethrower, while Nemtsov proved as fearless as the show’s producers had hoped. Nemtsov, for instance, asked why Zhirinovsky would continue to favor military intervention in Chechnya, given that he had celebrated the anniversary of Chechen independence with Dudaev himself just the year before. When the show turned to Nemtsov’s reforms in Nizhny Novgorod, Zhirinovsky claimed they were a total failure (about 2 minutes, 30 seconds into the clip above). The city, he said, had one of the country’s highest levels of venereal disease. Nemtsov, however, had come prepared. He pulled out an issue of Playboy Russia in which Zhirinovsky claimed to have slept with more than 200 women. That many partners, Nemtsov said, must have led to health problems. And Nizhny Novgorod had developed programs for that. “Syphilis?” Nemtsov asked, “We can cure you. Two shots and you’re done!” Zhirinovsky reacted with a string of expletives, then threw a glass of mango juice in Nemtsov’s face. Nemtsov responded in kind. Zhirinovsky, in turn, retaliated by throwing his glass, which shattered off-camera. Liubimov managed to close the show before events escalated much further, but in the last frame before the credits rolled, viewers could see a still-livid Zhirinovsky grabbing Nemtsov’s now-empty glass as his next projectile. Although the scandalous end of the show was great for Liubimov’s ratings, it represented a concerning trend for society at large. The episode showed how the public sphere had been co-opted by the entertainment economy. Instead of reasoned public debate in which the most rational and convincing argument wins, the commercial media prioritized spectacle and scandal. Political debate was not just sidelined, but actively stymied in the scramble for attention in the newly monetized economy. In that attention economy, Zhirinovsky’s loud idiocy and ethical pliability guaranteed him a place on the political scene until his death just after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Nemtsov’s more measured, evidence-based opposition found less traction. But his more or less continuous opposition remained a thorn in the Kremlin’s side until 2015, when he was assassinated mere steps from Moscow’s Red Square. The murder was never solved.