Vladimir Zhirirnovsky, founder and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and current vice speaker of the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian legislature), has taken a proposed law intended to place limits on smoking a step further by suggesting that sex and excessive eating should be restricted as well.
An article posted by The Moscow News on Feb. 12 briefly quoted Zhirirnovsky’s statements: “We need eating restrictions. Our people are overfed and too fat. Sex should also be restricted to one time per quarter through issuing licenses, quotas or coupons.”
Zhirinovsky has also said that the proposed smoking law, which would ban smoking in most public buildings, should be much more stringent. “We need a different formula: smoking is to be banned everywhere but in your own car if you close all the windows and stay there alone as well as in your own apartment if there is nobody else there. Shut all the windows and get yourself poisoned.”
According to The Moscow News, he went on to say, “People have too much sex, they eat, smoke and drink too much and die 20 years earlier. Everywhere – in Europe, America or Japan - they live longer. Why should we perish?”
Zhirinovsky has continued touting his messages on Feb. 13. The Moscow Times reported that he stated any smokers would be expelled from his party. "In the Liberal Democratic Party, no one smokes, and those who do — we'll throw them out. And nobody drinks alcohol and there's no sort of debauchery." Though he did not addresses the sex limitations he mentioned earlier in the week (at least not as reported so far), the assertion that there is “no sort of debauchery” in his party could certainly suggest that the subject is still on his mind.
Zhirinovsky has a colorful history to be certain. He made waves following a televised appearance in the United States back in 1992 when he called “for the preservation of the white race”, and more recently in 2006 when he suggested that Condolezza Rice was critical of Russian actions towards Ukraine during a gas conflict, because she was single and her female needs were not being met.
Should Zhirirnovsky’s suggestion ever become reality, it will join the ranks of strange sex laws still in the books (did you know that unmarried adults in Arizona who engage in intercourse are technically committing a felony punishable by up to three years in prison?), though it would likely be the only one of any recency.
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