A general best known for a bloody suppression of a pro-independence rally in Soviet Georgia was appointed Russia's new defense minister Wednesday.
Col. Gen. Igor Rodionov, 59, was the top choice of President Boris Yeltsin's new security chief, Alexander Lebed. He replaces Gen. Pavel Grachev, who was fired last month.A tough, no-nonsense commander, Rodionov served with Lebed in the Soviet army in Georgia in the late 1980s. Lebed has described Rodionov as "a brilliant general, a worthy and valiant man."
Rodionov rose through the military ranks and was put in charge of the 40th army in Afghanistan in the mid-1980s, then named commander of the Trans-Caucasian Military District.
He is best known for a bloody suppression of a pro-independence rally in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on April 9, 1989, when 19 nationalist protesters died at the hands of Soviet troops who attacked the demonstrators with shovels, clubs and poisonous chemicals.
Georgian authorities say hundreds of people were later treated for gas poisoning.
The bloodshed was widely condemned both in the Soviet Union and abroad. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said it was unjustified.
In a December 1989 report, a Soviet parliamentary commission formed to investigate the violence said Rodionov and two other generals were personally responsible for a series of "violations and mistakes that have led to the tragic consequences."
After the Tbilisi events, Rodionov was transferred from his post to head the General Staff Military Academy, a position he held until Wednesday.