Nixon Hears Out Zhirinovsky at Close of Moscow Trip : Russia: Radical leader repeats dubious ideas. The ex-President reportedly says his importance has been overblown.

Richard Nixon, the former American President, wound up an 11-day “fact-finding” mission to Moscow on Tuesday by hearing out Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, the Russian master of hyperbole. In 80 minutes, Nixon got an earful.

Among the dubious assertions Zhirinovsky made in their closed-door meeting were:

* 300 million Muslims are massing on Russia’s southern border and could take over the country.

* Zhirinovsky, who is determined to stop them, is so popular that he is certain to win Russia’s 1996 presidential election.

* Radical democrats, who have fallen from power in the Russian government, are determined to stop him. With American support, they are plotting a military coup to shut down Parliament, in which Zhirinovsky is a leading figure, and install a dictatorship under President Boris N. Yeltsin.

This was vintage Zhirinovsky, from the blowhard jingoist who ranted on television last fall, appealing to Russians’ fears of economic and ethnic turmoil and capturing the biggest vote for any party in December’s elections.

But this time he was speaking to a former U.S. President, an influential figure who will convey impressions about Russia to President Clinton and other Western leaders who are concerned, even alarmed, that Zhirinovsky’s rise means Russia is slipping back into the enemy camp.

Pointedly snubbed by Clinton during a summit with Yeltsin here two months ago, Zhirinovsky arrived at Nixon’s hotel suite determined to fix that impression.

Under questioning by the American, Zhirinovsky tried to sound “benign and responsible,” Nixon spokesman Dmitri Simes said.

Zhirinovsky disavowed past statements that espoused fascist, anti-Semitic and imperialist views. He handed Nixon a copy of his autobiography, “The Last Dash South,” to deliver to Clinton, with a handwritten message inside the cover: “I don’t want to be misunderstood by you.”

“I would like Mr. Clinton not to be afraid of me and my party,” Zhirinovsky explained to reporters afterward. “We are not a fascist party. We are not an anti-Semitic party. . . . We are the party that is against any violence, and we are ready to prove our superiority through elections.”

If Clinton reads the book, he might be forgiven for viewing Zhirinovsky as an imperialist. It ends with a vision, glorious to the author, of Russian soldiers advancing to the Indian Ocean.

In his meeting with Nixon, Zhirinovsky could not help sounding like the racist he said he is not. “He did say that the greatest threat to mankind is the Muslim threat,” Simes recalled. “He said, ‘But how would you react if Negroes took over major white cities in the United States?’ . . . He said that is like what is happening in Russia, that people from the Caucasus, the southern mafia, are everywhere, and that upsets the Russian people a great deal, and we have to respond to this sentiment.”

Nixon, making his 10th visit to Russia, sought audiences across the political spectrum but set a condition for receiving Zhirinovsky--there would be no joint appearance in public. The elder statesman said nothing to reporters after the meeting.

But on Monday, he described Zhirinovsky as “a brilliant political tactician” who “pushes hot-button issues that are totally irresponsible.” He added, “I would seriously doubt that the Russians, who are very serious people, would consider him” as their next president.

Of Zhirinovsky, a Nixon aide said: “He’s smart, articulate and unburdened by an excessive concern for the truth. He confronted his past statements by denying he ever made them or explaining them in a different light. He’s not a devoted anti-Semite but an opportunist. He speaks to the mood of his audience.

“President Nixon confirmed his impression that Zhirinovsky is a serious player whose importance is overblown in the United States,” the aide added.

That assessment seems to be confirmed by recent defections of three leading members of Zhirinovsky’s party, which could undermine its strength in the Duma, or lower house of Parliament. Among them are Viktor Kobelev, its No. 2 deputy there, and Anatoly Kaspirovsky, a TV hypnotist.

Kobelev said last month that he was quitting to protest Zhirinovsky’s friendship with German neo-fascist leader Gerhard Frey and his threats to wage war on the West if it launches air strikes against Bosnian Serbs, to create nuclear holocaust in Germany and to blockade Japan.