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MOSCOW, March 2 (Itar-Tass) -- The first and only president of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, is celebrating his 75th jubilee on Thursday, March 2. "A birthday party will be a modest one, and I shall celebrate it with relatives and friends," Gorbachev told Tass on the eve of his jubilee.
Gorbachev hardly expected so many people wanting to wish him a happy birthday. Gorbachev, who is usually open to communicate with people, even had to drop his old mobile telephone number that so many people knew.
"It will be a birthday party for friends," Gorbachev stressed. The birthday party will be held at a Moscow restaurant “with simple traditions, but enough other things to give a good treat to friends,” Gorbachev said.
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former U.S. President George Bush the senior and former British Prime Minister Margareth Thatcher are among the guests invited to attend Gorbachev’s birthday party in Moscow. "I do not know yet who of them will arrive,” Gorbachev noted. Stars of classical music and ballet, who gave a charity concert in his honor, was the best birthday present, Gorbachev said. He intends to use funds raised by the charity concert to help children suffering from leukemia.
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