Russian MP Drops Golden Gun During Fistfight in Parliament

A punch-up between two Russian members of parliament came to an abrupt end when a golden gun slipped out of one of the brawler's pocket and fell onto the floor of the State Duma in Moscow.

Vladimir Putin's United Russia party MPs Alexei Zhuravlyov and Adam Delimkhanov started a fistfight at the lower house of parliament over plans to erect a monument in Chechnya.

Delimkhanov, who is a cousin of Chechnya's ruthless leader Ramzan Kadyrov, was accused BY UAE authorities of having provided a golden gun used for the murder of a Chechen warlord in Dubai in 2009.

Zhuravlyov told Kommersant newapaper that he and Delimkhanov came to blows as they met near an elevator in the parliamentary building.

"He suddenly hit me in the head with his fist and I started to defend myself," Zhuravlyov said.

The scuffle escalated as the MPs' assistants and bodyguards joined in, but ended abruptly when the shiny piece of weaponry dropped on the floor.

"I'm alive and well, but I don't look very pretty," Zhuravlyov said.

The two MPs were reprimanded by the House speaker Sergei Naryshkin: "They are not worthy of the title of state deputies," he said.

The row was triggered by an earlier comment by Zhuravlyov on the opening of a monument in Chechnya, dedicated to a local woman who fought tsarist troops in the 19th century.

Chechnya fought two separatist wars against Russia in the 1990s and is the source of an ongoing Islamist insurgency which has spilled over to other regions of the northern Caucasus, like Dagestan.

Zhuravlyov said the monument could fuel extremism.

Delimkhanov was placed on the Interpol watch list in 2009 over the killing of Sulim Yamadayev, a Chechen warlord.

Dubai prosecutors alleged he had provided a hitman with the golden gun that was used to shot Yamadayev in the back of the head in the car park of the luxury Jumeirah Beach Residence in Dubai's marina.

Delimkhanov denies the allegations and was eventually removed from the Interpol list on the request of Dubai police in January 2012. The move was reported to have been negotiated during Kadyrov's visit to Dubai two months earlier.