20051776 Club
A grenade lands 18 metres from Bush's podium in Tbilisi; it does not go off
A red tartan handkerchief stayed wound around the striker lever; Bush and Saakashvili are told of the attempt only after the rally ends.
A crowd filled Tbilisi's Freedom Square on May 10, 2005, to hear President George W. Bush speak — and Vladimir Arutyunian was in it, a Soviet-made RGD-5 grenade wrapped in a red tartan handkerchief tucked in his hand. He pulled the pin and threw toward the podium. The grenade struck a girl, landed 18.6 metres from the stage, and did not detonate: the handkerchief had stayed wound tight around the striker lever. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili learned what had happened only after the rally ended…
