TBILISI (Reuters) – Eduard Shevardnadze, who as Soviet Foreign Minister helped bring down the Berlin Wall and end the Cold War, died yesterday after a long illness.
Shevardnadze, who was 86, went on to lead his native Georgia in the stormy early years after independence before being ousted in street protests.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who picked Shevardnadze as a break from the Soviet Union’s old guard of apparatchiks, expressed sorrow over the passing of a “friend”.
He described Shevardnadze, whose shock of white hair and wily diplomacy earned him the nickname “the Silver Fox”, as an “extraordinary, talented person” who had done much to broker Germany’s peaceful reunification and end the nuclear arms race.
“He was always quick to find a way of connecting with different people – with youngsters and the older generation. He had a bright character, a Georgian temperament,” he said, referring to Shevardnadze’s passionate nature.
One of those who was wooed by his charm was US Secretary of State James Baker, or ‘Jim’ as he called him – a friendship that would help to shape the post-Cold War era.
“Shevardnadze will have an honoured place in history because he and Mikhail Gorbachev refused to support the use of force to keep the Soviet empire together,” Baker said in a statement.
