Party Lavishes Long-Term Powers on Zhirinovsky : Russia: The ultranationalist appears to shift attention to grass-roots organizing. He has his eye on the presidency in 1996.

Ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky on Saturday gave his supporters a taste of how, if elected president, he would run Russia: all by himself, and for a long time.

At a congress of his party, the misleadingly named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Zhirinovsky asked for--and received without a dissenting voice--sweeping powers as chairman and a guaranteed term until the year 2004.

“The powerful ship of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia has come into the open ocean,” he declared. “We must give the navigator the chance to hold the wheel even more tightly, in order to steer the warship even more firmly and sail it into that victorious harbor known as one short word: president. “

It was Zhirinovsky’s own charisma and limitless TV promises, not his amorphous Liberal Democrats, that brought his party’s astounding success in Russian parliamentary elections in December, winning it about 23% of the vote.

But with Saturday’s congress, Zhirinovsky appeared to be shifting some of his attention to getting a real grass-roots organization under way--the kind of structure he needs for his intended run for president. Elections are scheduled for 1996.

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“The final goal is to make the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia the ruling party . . . to form a one-party government and occupy the supreme post of Russia--the presidency!” he said to a roaring hall of backers.

“Without emergency aid our country will not survive,” he continued, comparing himself to the one doctor who can cure Russia’s ills. “A patient dies when the doctors consult too long in the next room. If we allow the surgeon to start operating on the patient, he must lead the operation to its end and the patient is back on his feet.”

The 47-year-old lawyer, seen as a political clown until his December election success, exulted openly in the anxiety his mass support and extremist nationalist views have aroused in Russia and abroad.

“The world has been in shock for three months. They’re going crazy--all the governments, diplomats and intelligence services,” he said. “Billions of dollars are being spent to fight the only political force on the planet--the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.”

The platform passed around at the congress provided more fodder for anxiety. Zhirinovsky’s party proposes that Russia’s borders be expanded to those of the former Soviet Union and sees Serbia and Iraq as among Russia’s main strategic allies.

Attending the party congress in a giant hotel in southern Moscow were an official representative of the Iraqi government as well as French and German rightists and a large contingent of Serbs. Hanging above the gathering was the congress’ slogan: “LDPR on the Road to Power.” A central banner depicted a falcon, Zhirinovsky’s favorite symbol, over a map of Russia expanded to include Alaska.

With loud applause, the 343 delegates from various Russian regions approved Zhirinovsky’s proposal that he rule the party for 10 years. As chairman, Zhirinovsky also appoints the party’s entire leadership and has the power to remove anyone he chooses.

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Since the December elections, several top members have defected from the Liberal Democratic Party, saying they could not stomach Zhirinovsky’s rude behavior and his extreme positions, particularly his outrageous stands on foreign affairs. Zhirinovsky’s argument that he needs the right to appoint all leaders so that he can control them indicates that he has had trouble keeping his party subordinates in line.

The party has also had financial problems, according to defectors, but Zhirinovsky has not admitted to them. He claimed Saturday that the party had just paid off its election debt, which he put at the unlikely figure of only 250 million rubles--about $140,000. Another dubious fact Zhirinovsky shared with his adoring audience was that Western agents had offered him $100 million to leave politics. He also hinted that Japan had offered him $1 billion for the disputed Kuril Islands if he comes to power.

“In good Russian, I told them where to get off,” he said.

Zhirinovsky said that his party is not fascist and that he will reoccupy the old Russian empire without war. Someday soon, he said, Russian children will once again sing “My Native Country Is Wide.” He then broke into his own rendition of the Soviet-era favorite.