State Duma lawmakers, who just two days earlier passed a bill banning politicians from using dirty words and slang, found out Friday that it was hard to practice what they were preaching.
Independent Deputy Alexander Fedulov launched a withering attack on the ethics commission, which monitors lawmakers' behavior, and in an ensuing brawl ended up fending off blows from Communist Deputy Vasily Shandybin.
The scuffle broke out during a discussion of a report by the ethics commission, which was led by Unity Deputy Galina Strelchenko.
Fedulov called for a vote declaring the commission's activities unsatisfactory, saying it had improperly assessed statements by the Communists -- foremost Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, to whom he referred to as "a political prostitute."
Fedulov then called for an end to "political whoring" -- to a collective sigh from the other lawmakers.
A moment later, Shandybin approached Fedulov with flailing fists to defend Zyuganov.
Other deputies attemped to pull Fedulov and Shandybin apart.
"Vasily Ivanovich, Vasily Ivanovich, you'll squash him, don't touch him!" Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov pleaded in televised comments.
Fedulov was then banned from speaking for the rest of the day. A proposal to ban him from speaking for a month did not gain enough votes.
Under the language bill that was passed in a final reading Wednesday, vulgarisms, insulting words and curses are restricted wherever Russian is used as the state language -- in government bodies and official correspondence as well as in the media and advertising. The bill still must be approved by the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin to become law.
But those proposed restrictions did not stop several other lawmakers from lashing out Friday.
Riled that the ethics commission report said he had offended Russia in statements made during trips abroad, human rights activist and Deputy Sergei Kovalyov said the commission was "servile."
In response, Deputy Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky called Kovalyov "state criminal No. 1" for his "dirty slander" of Russia during his speeches abroad.
Zhirinovsky is currently under investigation by the ethics commission for an obscenity-filled outburst he made against the United States at a private party in Iraq.
A video of the outburst was shown on television.
Perhaps recalling his years behind bars as a human rights activist, Kovalyov, who is sometimes referred to by liberals as "Russia's conscience," urged the lawmakers to stop their "diarrhea of consciousness."
Seleznyov later referred to the deputies as mental patients whose moods are affected by seasonal changes.
"Then there will be problems in the fall as well," he told reporters.
Strelchenko said the ethics commission will review the minutes of Friday's session in two weeks and urged for the drafting of a detailed ethical code for the deputies.
Independent Deputy Alexander Fedulov launched a withering attack on the ethics commission, which monitors lawmakers' behavior, and in an ensuing brawl ended up fending off blows from Communist Deputy Vasily Shandybin.
The scuffle broke out during a discussion of a report by the ethics commission, which was led by Unity Deputy Galina Strelchenko.
Fedulov called for a vote declaring the commission's activities unsatisfactory, saying it had improperly assessed statements by the Communists -- foremost Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, to whom he referred to as "a political prostitute."
Fedulov then called for an end to "political whoring" -- to a collective sigh from the other lawmakers.
A moment later, Shandybin approached Fedulov with flailing fists to defend Zyuganov.
Other deputies attemped to pull Fedulov and Shandybin apart.
"Vasily Ivanovich, Vasily Ivanovich, you'll squash him, don't touch him!" Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov pleaded in televised comments.
Fedulov was then banned from speaking for the rest of the day. A proposal to ban him from speaking for a month did not gain enough votes.
Under the language bill that was passed in a final reading Wednesday, vulgarisms, insulting words and curses are restricted wherever Russian is used as the state language -- in government bodies and official correspondence as well as in the media and advertising. The bill still must be approved by the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin to become law.
But those proposed restrictions did not stop several other lawmakers from lashing out Friday.
Riled that the ethics commission report said he had offended Russia in statements made during trips abroad, human rights activist and Deputy Sergei Kovalyov said the commission was "servile."
In response, Deputy Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky called Kovalyov "state criminal No. 1" for his "dirty slander" of Russia during his speeches abroad.
Zhirinovsky is currently under investigation by the ethics commission for an obscenity-filled outburst he made against the United States at a private party in Iraq.
A video of the outburst was shown on television.
Perhaps recalling his years behind bars as a human rights activist, Kovalyov, who is sometimes referred to by liberals as "Russia's conscience," urged the lawmakers to stop their "diarrhea of consciousness."
Seleznyov later referred to the deputies as mental patients whose moods are affected by seasonal changes.
"Then there will be problems in the fall as well," he told reporters.
Strelchenko said the ethics commission will review the minutes of Friday's session in two weeks and urged for the drafting of a detailed ethical code for the deputies.
| Brawls in the State Duma | |
| Sept. 9, 1995 A fight broke out after Deputy Nikolai Lysenko of the far-right National Republican Party of Russia attacked Deputy Gleb Yakunin, a priest who was defrocked in 1993 for his political activities. As Yakunin, 61, descended from the podium, Lysenko jumped on him, ripping a heavy silver cross from his neck and striking him several times. Lysenko said he was going to give the cross to the Moscow Patriarchate. Deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky joined the fray, shoving and punching the priest from behind. "Beat him, Kolya! Strangle him! Rip off his cassock!" Zhirinovsky shouted. Several people rushed to Yakunin's defense, including Yevgenia Tishkovskaya, a 47-year-old deputy from the normally pacifist New Regional Policy faction. She tried to grab the cross from Lysenko but was roughly restrained by Zhirinovsky. Tishkovskaya suffered a concussion. Zhirinovsky also struck another female deputy, Nina Volkova, who was walking by. March 11, 1998 Zhirinovsky loudly heckled Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov over procedural technicalities. In response, Yabloko Deputy Yelena Mizulina moved to ban him from speaking in the Duma for a month, but the motion failed. Nevertheless, Seleznyov subsequently refused to let Zhirinovsky speak. Zhirinovsky and several supportive deputies took over the speaker's podium, forcing a 30-minute halt to proceedings. As deputies milled around the podium, Zhirinovsky directed a stream of insults at Mizulina, threw mineral water at Yabloko member Anatoly Golov and others, spat and called his critics "American spies." | March 31, 1999 Tempers flared after liberal Deputy Sergei Yushenkov defended an inconclusive peace mission by three liberal politicians to Yugoslavia during the Kosovo crisis and called Deputy Vladimir Semago a political prostitute. Semago briskly strode over to Yushenkov, reached over his shoulder and knocked away his table microphone. Yushenkov responded by standing up and shoving Semago in the chest. Deputy Vasily Shandybin rushed to Semago's aid. He and Yushenkov scuffled but neither landed a punch. June 15, 2001 Yelena Drapeko, a member of the Communist faction, shouted "shame, shame" into the ear and microphone of Duma property committee head Viktor Pleskachevsky as he started to read a report supporting the draft Land Code. Then she exchanged verbal insults with pharmaceutical tycoon and Deputy Vladimir Bryntsalov as the Communists tried to block the bill from being passed. After Bryntsalov insulted Drapeko, Communist Georgy Tikhonov decided to defend her honor and tried to grab Bryntsalov. Bryntsalov responded by kicking and head-butting Tikhonov. Feb. 5, 2002 Zhirinovsky hurled a glass at Boris Nadezhdin, deputy head of the Union of Right Forces. His outburst came after he suggested that only ethnic Russians be granted citizenship during a Duma Council discussion of a bill toughening regulations for migrants and former Soviet citizens. Nadezhdin joked that Zhirinovsky might find himself excluded under such a measure. Zhirinovsky has repeatedly evaded questions about the nationality of his father and once said his father's nationality was "a lawyer." |