“On the basis of the analysis of the information I had received I want to announce for the whole world that the May 10 terrorist attack against Bush was carried out by Saakashvili’s special services in order to salvage the destroyed image of the dictatorship,” Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Shalva Natelashvili as saying.

“By this Saakashvili wanted to make the media mention his name along with the U.S. president’s name as a man who fights for democracy and who is a victim of terrorism,” Natelashvili said.

The politician claimed that the suspected attacker, Vladimir Arutunyan, has been an agent of Georgia’s special services for many years and got his weapons from them.

After presenting this theory Natelashvili said that he would demand that Georgian investigators are not allowed to handle the case and that Arutunyan is handed over to American justice.

Vladimir Arutunyan was detained in Tbilisi on July 20 and charged with terrorism on July 26. He has pleaded guilty to tossing a hand grenade at the stage during George Bush’s public speech in Tbilisi on May 10. The grenade did not explode because it was wrapped too tightly in a handkerchief and the impact was too light to set off the primer.