Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze . Photo: Reuters

Eduard Shevardnadze, a former president of Georgia and Soviet foreign minister, died yesterday after a long struggle with illness, his personal assistant said.

Shevardnadze, who was 86, played a vital role in ending the Cold War as Soviet foreign minister, and went on to lead his native Georgia in the stormy early years after independence before being ousted in street protests.

The last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, expressed sorrow over the passing of a “friend”, hailing him as an “extraordinary, talented person” who had done much to bring down the Berlin Wall 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.

Shevardnadze’s assistant, Marina Davitashvili, said he died at midday local time after a long illness. Loved by some but hated by others in his native Georgia after bringing stability but failing to tackle widespread corruption, Shevardnadze rarely ventured out of his hill-top residence during his last years.

As foreign minister under Gorbachev, Shevardnadze oversaw the thaw in relations with the West before the Berlin Wall came down and the communist Soviet Union was dismantled. He was one of the intellectual fathers of “perestroika” (restructuring), the reform policy which Gorbachev said was conceived during a stroll along the shores of the Black Sea with his Georgian comrade.