Georgia’s second president and former foreign minister of the Soviet Union died on July 7 at the age of 86.

After stepping down from president following the 2003 Rose Revolution, Shevardnadze had spent most of his time at the Krtsanisi residence; there have been reports about his deteriorating health in recent months.

Shevardnadze, who became Georgia’s head of state in 1992 after Georgia’s first president Zviad Gamsakhurdia was ousted, was elected as country’s second president in 1995.

He held the office before November 23, 2003, when he was forced to resign as a result of street protest rallies, which became known as the Rose Revolution.

Shevardnadze was interior minister in the Soviet Georgia for five years before becoming in 1972 head of the Communist Party in Georgia, the top post in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. In 1985 he was promoted to the post of the Soviet Union’s Foreign Minister.

In 1995 and 1998 Shevardnadze survived in two attacks on his motorcade in Tbilisi.
 
His wife Nanuli Shevardnadze-Tsagareishvili died in October, 2004 at the age of 75.

Shevardnadze is survived by a daughter, Manana, and a son, Paata.