Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky (Russian: Влади́мир Во́льфович Жирино́вский), born 25 April 1946 as Vladimir Volfovich Eidelstein, is a Russian politician, lawyer and a colonel in the Soviet Army and later the Russian Army. He is the founder and Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). He is a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He is partly of Jewish descent (his father was Jewish).