Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has hailed Eduard Shevardnadze’s “great contribution to perestroika policies”. <br /><br />Shevardnadze, who has died at the age of 86, was Gorbachev’s foreign minister until the collapse of the USSR in 1991.<br /><br />Speaking to Russian media, Gorbachev described Shevardnadze as a man of “many talents” and spoke of his ability to communicate with people at all levels of society.<br /><br />After the break-up of the USSR, Shevardnadze became head of state of the newly-independent Georgia in 1992. He was formally elected president in 1995. <br /><br />Shevardnadze has been credited with leading Georgia out of instability and civil war. His presidency, however, was dogged by allegations of corruption.<br /><br />He was forced to resign amid mass public protests over alleged voting irregularities during the 2003 election – the so-called Rose Revolution, which brought Mikheil Saakashvili to power.<br /><br />After leaving office, Shevardnadze spent his final years in quiet retirement in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.<br /><br />Russian president Vladimir Putin has offered his “deep condolences to [Shevardnadze’s] friends and relatives and to the whole Georgian people”.
