ZURAB ZHVANIA, Georgia’s youthful Prime Minister, was once a close ally of the former President, Eduard Shevardnadze, but turned against his corrupt regime and played a prominent role in its overthrow in Georgia’s Rose Revolution. For several years he and Georgia’s president, Mikhail Saakashvili, were rivals for leadership of the opposition, but later Zhvania became a key figure and moderating influence in the Saakashvili Government.

He also played a significant part in trying to negotiate settlements with Georgia’s separatist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Zurab Zhvania was born in Tbilisi into a family of academics, following their example when he entered the the Ivane Dzhavakhishvili State University. There he studied biology and after his graduation he became a researcher on human and animal physiology at the university.

It was somewhat unexpectedly that Zhvania became one of the most influential of Georgia’s politicians in the mid-1990s, having only in 1988 joined the Green Party, which was central in the drive for Georgian independence.

In 1992 he was elected to the first post-Soviet Georgian national parliament, where he led the Greens’ faction and became deputy chairman of the legislature’s foreign affairs committee. There he was noticed for his eloquence and political acumen and, in 1993, Shevardnadze made him chairman of his Union of the Citizens of Georgia (SMK). From then on Zhvania became Shevardnadze’s right-hand man.

In 2002, however, Zhvania dissociated himself from Shevardnadze, having become increasingly disillusioned with the SMK’s failure to reform. He joined a party of young reformers, who were to initiate the Rose Revolution.

Few believed that the triumvirate of Zhvania and Nino Burjanadze, now both of the Burjanadze Democrats, and Mikhail Saakashvili, of the United National Movement, would succeed, but through their efforts Shevardnadze, whose Government was increasingly being associated with corruption, was ousted.

Free elections were held. “These are elections which will mark the beginning of the end of 30 years of Shevardnadze’s rule in Georgia and will start a new period when new forces will come to power,” Zvhania said. “Who will these people be? Will they symbolise and bring to Georgia a European way of development, or will this be another form of Soviet nostalgia?” Saakashvili was elected President, Zhvania Prime Minister and Burjanadze parliamentary Speaker.

Zhvania was considered to be the most experienced and talented of those involved in the Rose Revolution and, indeed, the image of hundreds of Georgians waving red and white flags at him as he stood on a balcony after the forced resignation of Shevardnadze has become a symbol of the change of direction.

He was fluent in English and German, as well as Russian, and was considered a Western-looking politician. This, combined with his popularity in difficult regions such as South Ossetia, not only made him stand out as an able statesman, but also as an unfriendly figure in Russia’s eyes, a fact compounded by his ready criticism of Moscow’s policy towards Georgia.

Last August, Zhvania and his convoy came under fire in South Ossetia, as the breakaway region resisted Tbilisi’s attempts to bring it back under central control after 12 years of virtual independence. Separatist forces and Russian peacekeepers were blamed for the incident by the Georgian authorities.

Unsubstantiated rumours of questionable business activities meant that Zhvania was viewed in some quarters with a degree of mistrust, but opinion polls consistently rated him among the most intellectual and intelligent of Georgia’s political figures.

His stand for democracy and a free press certainly impressed the Georgian people. When he broke away from the SMK, after thousands had marched in Tbilisi in anger at Shevardnadze’s rule, his resignation speech was broadcast live on national radio. In it he made clear his position: he would leave politics only when he could be sure “that no-one wags their finger at independent TV companies, that no-one attempts to use economic or other pretexts to terrorise and blackmail the public ’s only source of truthful information”.

Zhvania is survived by his wife and three children.

Zurab Zhvania, Prime Minister of Georgia, was born on September 12, 1963. He was killed, apparently by a gas leak, on Febuary 3, 2005, aged 41.