Russian lawmaker spits at rival, starts brawl

updated 2:43 p.m. ET March 30, 2005

MOSCOW - Flamboyant ultranationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky spat at an opponent and grabbed him by the hair before being pummeled by other colleagues in a parliament brawl Wednesday.

Zhirinovsky, dubbed the clown of Russian politics because of his antics, was protesting the results of weekend regional parliamentary elections in Yamalo-Nenets in western Siberia, in which his Liberal Democratic Party fared poorly.

His party finished behind the Rodina and the Communists, and the winner, the pro-presidential United Russia party that took more than 60 percent of the vote, the Interfax news agency said.

Zhirinovsky, who is also deputy speaker of the parliament, spat at Andrei Savyolov from the leftist Rodina party and grabbed his hair.

The two lunged at each other with their fists and others joined in as Zhirinovsky was wrestled to the ground and hit repeatedly.

Lawmakers later voted to bar Zhirinovsky from addressing the chamber for a month and to investigate his position in the parliament. Rodina asked that he be stripped of his deputy speaker role. Zhirinovsky’s party has generally toed the Kremlin line.

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