Zhirinovsky told a lot of nonsense. He's frequently compared to a clown for a very good reason. That's media stuff, saying all sorts of bullshit to grab attention. Deputies almost never get accounted for anything they say.

LDPR's absolutely loyal to current powers. Believe it or not, if Zhirinovsky's a part of a fringe extremist group, that's an extremist group blessed by Putin.

> That's just one example of the kind of crackpot ideas they come out with

They all do play clowns and tell all sort of crackpot ideas. It's not like Zhirinovsky's has secured a position of court jester. Just consider Fedorov from United Russia as a nice example.

> it's not an idea Putin would entertain

Why? Putin's perfectly fine with all this bullshit, as long as it's not against his own agenda. Sure thing, he doesn't want to be associated with this, and won't explicitly approve of anything, but had he ever reacted harshly? Nah, imperial wet dreams of Great Russia, with Soviet war bears retaking Alaska and "Fascington" doesn't seem bother him any tiniest bit.

> I certainly don't think Putin is implicated with cast iron evidence here, which seems to be your position.

I guess we agree on this, not iron-clad for sure. An iron-clad one would be a recordings or multiple testaments. And those are unlikely to be ever obtained, even if they exist.

Yet, I think, it's well-probable, with high degree of possibility - to the extent we can say "too many factors point to this, so it's well likely Patrushev and Putin knew of this".