Soon afterwards he was elected to the praesidium of his one-time tormentor, the Composers' Union, and the old hostility of Soviet officialdom towards him gradually crumbled during the Gorbachevera of perestroika.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Soviet-era President Mikhail Gorbachev and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair are all expected to attend, he added.
Putin is trading in his Mercedes Benz for a Russian-made Zil limousine, which was once a symbol of Soviet era power and used by Soviet leaders Nikita Krushchev, Leonid Breznev and Mikhail Gorbachev.