Ukranian Parliamentarians Lob Raw Eggs

Men behaving badly we don't expect it of lawmakers, but that is exactly what happened last Tuesday when members of Ukraine's Parliament broke out into a fist- and egg-throwing fight while somebody set off a smoke bomb.

A pre-meditated affair, one would imagine, unless Ukranian lawmakers generally attend parliamentary sessions armed with raw eggs and the like.

The fight was a result of opposition to the ratification of a treaty with Russia which allows the Russian navy to continue leasing a strategic naval base in Sebastopol in the Black Sea for another 32 years.

In return, Russia will reduce the price of the natural gas it sells to the Ukraine by 30%. This puts an end to years of price disputes which resulted in Russia closing off a pipeline that serves parts of Europe as well as the Ukraine.

The objectors were led by the Opposition Leader, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who said that the ratification violated the Ukranian Constitution, which prohibits the Ukraine from hosting foreign military bases after 2017. Tymoshenko also said that gas or no gas, this deal signals the beginning of the end of the Ukraine's sovereignty.

Current Prime Minister Viktor Yakunovych, who signed the deal with Russia, is from the Eastern Ukraine which is predominantly Russian-speaking. His predecessor was violently opposed to Russian presence in the Ukraine's port of Sebastopol, as is Yulia Tymoshenko, and many Ukranians, 10,000 of whom gathered outside Kiev's Parliament building to protest against the treaty before it was signed.