After Assassination Bid, Russia Vows Aid

Russia pledged to help Georgian President Eduard A. Shevardnadze fight a “hydra of terrorism” after he escaped an assassination attempt Monday that has strained relations with Moscow. “I . . . offered him my moral support,” Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin told reporters on the last day of a state visit to Italy. In the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, where lawmakers have alleged that forces in Russia were behind the attack on Shevardnadze’s motorcade, officials from both countries began moves to diffuse tensions. However, Shevardnadze said in an interview that he believes the attack was linked to the construction of an oil pipeline that would circumvent Russian territory.