Nikolai Valuev , a deputy from the United Russia party, talks to colleagues during the first session...
Nikolai Valuev (L), a retired professional boxer and a deputy from the United Russia party, talks to colleagues during the first session of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in Moscow December 21, 2011.For much of the first decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia's parliament was a feisty opposition stronghold where deputies brawled, votes could be nail-bitingly close and, on one occasion, tanks shelled the chamber into submission. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST SPORT BOXING)