Eduard Shevarnadze dies at 86
Georgia's ex-president, former foreign minister of the Soviet Union died in Tbilisi at 86.
The politician died on July 7 at 12 a.m. (local time, 11 a.m. - Belarusian time). No information has been provided yet on the time and place of the funeral.
Eduard Shevarnadze was born on January 25, 1928. He was a Soviet, then Georgian political and state figure. He got the first top-ranked position back in 1965, when he became a minister of public order defence in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Three years later, Shevarnadze headed the Interior Ministry of the Georgian SSR. Starting from 1972, he was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Georgia, since 1985 - the minister of foreign affairs of the Soviet Union. Eduard Shevarnadze stayed at this position till the very downfall of the USSR.
Eduard Shevarnadze returned to big politics in 1995, when he became President of Georgia, where he returned after the crush of Zvijad Gamsahurdia's regime. First, he was a head of the State Council, then he headed the parliament. In autumn 2003 Shevarnadze was forced to retire after the so-called "Revolution of Roses", under the pressure of the opposition and the demonstrators.
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