Task: Question Answering
Input (English): Context: About a year later , as I was reading the newspaper , to my surprise I read the name Eduard Shevardnadze . I was surprised to read that he was the USSR 's Foreign Minister under Mikhail Gorbachev . Not that it made my praying for him any more expedient , it certainly made it more interesting . And for sure , I did not think I was the only one praying for him at the time . 
Question: Why would the narrator be praying for Eduard Shevardnadze ?
Output (English): They wanted them to be a successful leader .