“The Kiev prosecutors have opened a criminal enquiry into the hooliganism carried out by a group of deputies in the Verkhovna Rada,” a spokesman for prosecutors in the Ukrainian capital told AFP.
In a chaotic parliamentary session on Tuesday, pro-Western opposition lawmakers hurled eggs and smoke bombs while fistfights broke out in the benches.
The tumult broke out as the Verkhovna Rada was debating ratification of a controversial deal to extend the lease of a Russian naval base on Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula for 25 more years.
Pro-Western opposition parties considered the deal a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and a selling-out of national interests to the country’s giant neighbour Russia.
© Copyright AFP Agence France-Presse GmbH – All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.
