KIEV ��" Opposition lawmakers hurled eggs and smoke bombs inside Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday as the chamber approved an agreement allowing the Russian Navy to extend its stay in a Ukrainian port until 2042. Crowds of supporters and opponents scuffled outside the parliament building as deputies from newly elected President Viktor Yanukovich's coalition approved a 25-year extension to the Russian Black Sea Fleet's base in Crimea. "Today [Tuesday] will go down as a black page in the history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian parliament," opposition leader and former premier Yulia Tymoshenko told journalists inside parliament. The chamber filled with smoke as the smoke bombs were released and Speaker Volodymyr Litvyn took shelter under umbrellas provided by bodyguards as eggs rained down on him. Protesting deputies unfurled huge Ukrainian flags across the benches. Ukrainian nationalists, led by Tymoshenko and former president Viktor Yushchenko, regard the base as a betrayal of Ukraine's national interests. They wanted to remove it when the existing lease runs out in 2017. But parliament ratified the lease extension by 236 votes - 10 more than the minimum required for it to pass - and then promptly adopted the 2010 state budget which is key for securing $12 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund. Parliament bypassed normal procedure and adopted the budget without discussion because of the mayhem. Yanukovich agreed the navy base deal with Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev on April 21 in exchange for a 30 percent cut in the price of Russian gas to Ukraine - a boon to Kiev's struggling economy. "There is no alternative to this decision - because ratification means a lower price for gas and a lower price for gas means the budget," Ukraine's Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said. "The budget means agreement with the IMF, the possibility of getting investments. It is a program of development for Ukraine in the future."
