AKIPRESS.COM - The second president of Georgia, Eduard Shevarnadze, passed away at the age of 86, his press service told July 7.

He was born 25 January 1928. He was a former Soviet minister of foreign affairs, and later, Georgian statesman until the end of the Cold War.

He served as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party from 1972 to 1985, and as the President of independent Georgia from 1992 to 2003.