Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultranationalist Russian politician known for outrageous remarks on everything from migrant laborers to terrorism, has now targeted a letter in the Russian alphabet.
The letter in question is the vowel "ы"—a difficult-to-pronounce sound for non-native Russian speakers that is usually transliterated simply as "y" in English. Zhirinovsky says he wants the letter removed from the Russian alphabet, calling it a "nasty Asiatic" import. The vowel came to the Russian language from the Mongols, Zhirinovsky was quoted as telling the State Duma on March 12.
"Only animals make this sound, 'ы- ы,'" he said, adding that the regular 'и' ('i') is enough for the Russian alphabet. 'Ы' doesn't exist in any other European language, argued Zhirinovsky. "This primitive, Asiatic sound is the reason people don't like us in Europe," he told lawmakers.
The politician seemed to have a longstanding issue with the "guttural" letter, which he claimed his son wasn't able to pronounce as a child. "He once told me, 'Dad, dad, look, there's a 'мишка'," the Russian word for 'bear.' "I thought 'What 'мишка'? A bear? But he meant 'мышка'," the word for "mouse."
Insulting rhetoric is nothing new for the leader of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party. Last month, Zhirinovsky sparked outrage in Central Asia, saying the region's five republics should be grouped together as subjects of Russia. The Almaty-born politician suggested the creation of the "Central Asian Federal Region" of Russia with a capital that should be known as "Verny." 'Verny' is Russian for 'loyal,' and also the old name for the Kazakh city of Almaty.
