State-run surveys suggest Putin enjoys a clear path to victory in the elections two and a half weeks from now. Longtime LDPR party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky has been polling a distant third at around six percent. He is widely seen as a figure whose outlandish statements are designed to increase public interest in an otherwise predictable political landscape.

Vladimir Putin’s perennial challenger in Russia’s presidential elections has pledged to crack down on oligarchs and impose a “brutal dictatorship” in the unlikely case that he is elected.

Speaking at a televised debate skipped by Putin, Zhirinovsky said he would “punish the oligarchs and everyone who steals” to return an estimated $1 trillion held offshore.

“It’s impossible to do in a democracy, I will introduce the most brutal dictatorship,” he said in debates broadcast by the state-run Channel One on Thursday.

At least one of the seven registered presidential candidates, marred by vulgar name-calling in the first instalment, criticized the debates as a “farce.”

“I’m not going to participate in this because you’re the ones who keep people from coming to the polls because it’s a farce,” Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin declared before walking off the set.