PERESTROIKA: Twenty years later
MEETING OLD FRIENDS
Former Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev described the 20th
Anniversary of Perestroika
celebration on October 21
as “a meeting of old friends.”
Friends who included former
President Bill Clinton, former
Secretaries of State Colin
Powell and Madeleine Albright,
media titan Ted Turner, actress
Shirley MacLaine and Nobel
laureate Be y Williams.
The Gorbachev and Frank
Foundations hosted the dinner
for 200 at the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, which was also
the scene of a symposium on
the success of Perestroika in
ending Soviet rule in Russia. “I
would not be making a mistake
to say that Perestroika won.
It succeeded,” Gorbachev
said.
GRAMMY AWARD WINNERS
Clinton joked that
his friendship with Gorbachev
is due to a Grammy Award they
won last year for a recording
of “Peter and the Wolf” which
they had produced together
with actress Sophia Loren for
charity. Clinton said, “It was
obvious from the beginning
with Perestroika blooming
in Russia, there was a new
openness, a new sense of
freedom, a new leader.”
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
The evening concluded with
a piano recital by Andrei
Garvilov, who successfully
urged Gorbachev to allow him
to stay in the West without
having to request political
asylum. This allowed him to
make his debut at Carnegie
Hall in 1985. He is now
considered to be one
of the fi nest pianists of
the 20th Century.
PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON
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