Vladimir Arutyunian, a Georgian citizen and ethnic Armenian, was born on 12 March 1978 in Tbilisi, Soviet Georgia.

Arutyunian lost his father at an early age and lived with his mother, who was a stall-holder at the local street market.

[1] Arutyunian joined the Democratic Union for Revival party led by Aslan Abashidze in January 2004, but soon after left the organization's ranks.

[2] He joined the Revival party in the same month Mikheil Saakashvili became president of Georgia and had led Adjara in a crisis by refusing to obey the central government authorities.

The grenade landed 18.6 metres (61 ft) from the podium, near where Saakashvili, his wife Sandra Roelofs, Laura Bush, and other officials were seated.

[11] During an ensuing gunfight, Arutyunian killed the head of the Interior Ministry's counterintelligence department, Zurab Kvlividze.

[13] Twenty liters (5.3 U.S. gallons) of sulfuric acid, several drawers full of mercury thermometers, a microscope, and "enough dangerous substances to carry out several terrorist acts" were found.

[15] On 11 January 2006, a Georgian court sentenced Arutyunian to life imprisonment for the attempted assassination of George Bush and Mikheil Saakashvili, and the killing of Officer Kvlividze.

In September 2005, a United States federal grand jury also indicted Arutyunian, and could ask to extradite him if he is ever released.