Georgia Explosions Kill 2 as Yeltsin Visits

Two explosions ripped through an apartment in this tense capital Thursday, killing two people and injuring the Georgian defense minister, while less than a mile away the Russian and Georgian presidents signed agreements to allow Russian military bases and troops in Georgia.

A Georgian spokesman blamed the bombings on terrorists opposed to closer military links with Moscow.

But there was no evidence that the assassination was linked to President Boris N. Yeltsin’s first state visit to the former Soviet republic, and the one-day summit proceeded as planned.

Georgia’s deputy defense minister, Col. Nikolas Kekelidze, was in bed in his downtown apartment when a powerful, remote-controlled bomb exploded at 4 a.m., killing him and a woman who was identified by friends as his mistress. The blasts also damaged nearby buildings.

Yeltsin arrived in Tbilisi at 10 a.m. under unprecedented security. About 200 dilapidated buses were used to block roads into the city, and hundreds of Georgian police officers lined the streets along which Yeltsin’s motorcade traveled.

Yeltsin’s security staff had already insisted that the Russian president not spend a night in Tbilisi, where they said his safety could not be guaranteed, Russian and Georgian sources said.

The second bomb went off in Kekelidze’s apartment at 1 p.m., as Yeltsin and Georgian leader Eduard A. Shevardnadze were signing 26 different agreements on military and economic cooperation in a government building not far away.

Georgian Defense Minister Georgy Karkarashvili, who had come to inspect the considerable damage done by the first explosion, suffered a slight concussion from the second blast. Apparently the apartment had been booby-trapped; a grenade was set to detonate when investigators opened the door.

Karkarashvili offered his resignation earlier this week in protest of the closer ties to Russia, but Shevardnadze had not accepted it.

Some sources suggested that pro-Russian forces carried out the bombings, but there was also speculation that the motive instead stemmed from Kekelidze’s business dealings.

A Georgian Defense Ministry statement said the bombings were “very well planned and professionally executed” and represented “one more link in a chain of terrorist murders, none of which have been solved.”

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, no former republic has had a stormier relationship with Moscow than Georgia.

Georgia has fought three civil wars since 1991--and blames elements in the Russian defense Establishment for giving separatists arms, intelligence and volunteers. Last spring, Shevardnadze declared that Georgia was “effectively at war with Russia.”

In a sign of how fast things have changed, on Thursday, President Yeltsin became the most feted guest in Georgia since independence.

Shevardnadze called the Russian-Georgian friendship treaty “one of the major events in 200 years of history between our two peoples.”

A protocol signed by the two leaders will allow for three Russian bases to be set up in Georgia: in Tbilisi, in Batumi on the Turkish border and in Akalkalakhi, near the Armenian border.

The agreements also permit the deployment of Russian border guards on the frontiers of the former Soviet republic, envision Russian arms sales to Georgia and pledge Russian help in setting up a Georgian national army.

Though some protesters bitterly attacked what they saw as a Georgian sellout to a resurgent, imperialist Russia, Shevardnadze emphasized how much bad ties with Moscow had weakened his country.

“The temporary coolness in our relations was a serious mistake which must be corrected,” Shevardnadze said.

Times special correspondent Rowell reported from Tbilisi and staff writer Efron from Moscow.