Fight Breaks Out In Russian State Duma

Russian Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov (left, seen with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov at an annual horse race in the Rostov-na-Donu) is one of the two deputies reportedly involved in the December 3 fight.The speaker of Russia's State Duma has urged lawmakers not to comment on a fistfight that broke out between two ruling-party deputies, saying the issue should be handled by police, rferl.org reports.

Two lawmakers representing the ruling United Russia party reportedly came to blows on December 3 in the Duma in the Russian capital, Moscow.

Speaker Sergei Naryshkin condemned the fight and urged public silence the next day.

In the incident, lawmaker Adam Delimkhanov, who is a cousin and close confidant of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, allegedly scuffled with fellow lawmaker Aleksei Zhuravlyov.

Zhuravlyov's spokeswoman told journalists that the fistfight started after Delimkhanov challenged Zhuravlyov's request to the Prosecutor-General's Office to check the legality of a monument in Gudermes to young women in Chechnya who died opposing the 19th-century Russian tsarist conquest of the North Caucasus.

Verbal arguments then led to an exchange of punches. Delimkhanov's associates refused to comment on the incident.