A man who confessed to throwing a live grenade toward US President George W Bush during a visit to the former Soviet state Georgia has been charged with premeditated murder for the killing of a policeman during a shootout that preceded his arrest.
Vladimir Arutyunian, who has been hospitalised since he was detained Wednesday, admitted in video footage that he threw the grenade that landed near a podium where Mr Bush was speaking in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in May, officials said.
The grenade malfunctioned and did not explode. Both Mr Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili were on the podium when the grenade landed about 100 feet away.
Investigators have not established a motive for the attack but are satisfied the 27-year-old suspect has no connection with Russian forces, despite reports that military uniforms were found in his house.
"I confirm categorically that he never served in our structures," said Col Vladimir Kuparadze, deputy commander of Russia's forces in Georgia. "As to the Russian military uniforms, getting those in Georgia doesn't present any difficulty."
Russia has troops at two military bases in Georgia and their withdrawal, now scheduled for 2008, had been a tense issue. Georgia and Russia agreed in June on a withdrawal date.
The Interior Ministry said yesterday that Mr Arutyunian was believed to have been a member of the Agordzineba party, which supported the leader of a region largely outside central government control.
Aslan Abashidze, the recalcitrant leader of the Adzharia region, fled to Russia last year amid rising street protests against his authoritarian rule. The unrest erupted after he destroyed bridges linking Adzharia with the rest of Georgia and claimed that Mr Saakashvili was preparing a military invasion.
A spokeswoman for the Georgian prosecutor's office, Khatuna Khvediashvili, said Mr Arutyunian had been formally presented with the charge, although it was not immediately clear why it was for premeditated murder.
He fled into nearby woods after the shootout on Wednesday in which one policeman was killed in a village on the outskirts of Tbilisi. The suspect was captured about an hour later and taken to a hospital for treatment for gunshot wounds.
In footage broadcast by Rustavi-2 television from the hospital, Mr Arutyunian signed a document relating to the charge in the presence of a state-appointed lawyer.
The suspect was refusing to answer investigators' questions, Tbilisi prosecutor Georgy Gviniashvili said.
AP