KIEV, March 19 (RIA Novosti) – Nationalist lawmakers in Ukraine’s rowdy legislature brawled Tuesday with deputies from the ruling Party of Regions in a standoff over which language should be used in parliament.
Fisticuffs are commonplace in the politically turbulent ex-Soviet nation’s parliament, but this latest scuffle has served to once again highlight broader latent tensions across the country.
Trouble began when opposition deputies blocked the podium after Party of Regions faction leader Oleksandr Yefremov starting delivering a speech in Russian.
Angry deputies tried to shout down Yefremov, calling out “Speak Ukrainian” and “Shame” while he was speaking.
After the fighting died down, parliament speaker Volodymyr Rybak announced a recess and invited faction leaders to his office for consultations.
The Svoboda All-Ukrainian Union ultra-nationalist party has repeatedly demanded that all members of parliament speak exclusively in Ukrainian and has pledged to block the podium again if deputies speak Russian.
Ukrainian is the country’s only official language.
About 50 percent of Ukrainians speak Russian, which is recognized only as a regional language. Some 17 percent of the population is ethnic Russian.
Russians reside primarily in urban centers and in the country’s industrialized eastern regions, near the Russian border.
