MIKHAIL GORBACHEV IS RECEIVING NUMEROUS CONGRATULATIONS








MOSCOW, March 2, 2001. /From RIA Novosti's Nikolai Makarov/. On his 70th birthday, Mikhail Gorbachev is receiving numerous congratulations. The first Soviet president is receiving on the premises of the Gorbachev Foundation visitors who wish to congratulate him in person. In particular, former Polish president Vojciech Jaruzelski came to congratulate Mikhail Gorbachev on his jubilee. 


	Telegrams to Gorbachev are coming from Russia and abroad from statesmen, public figures, politicians, men in the arts and culture, whole collectives, noted the press service.


	Even Boris Yeltsin congratulated Mikhail Gorbachev. In a letter he wished Mikhail Gorbachev "sound health, wellbeing and success." Telegrams have come also from FRG Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev and Turkmen president Saparmurad Niyazov. Mikhail Gorbachev has got congratulations from Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexis II and is expecting congratulations from Margaret Thatcher.


	In the evening the celebrations in honor of Mikhail Gorbachev will continue in the Grand Marriott hotel, where over 300 guests have been invited to a banquet. Mikhail Gorbachev stressed that he would be glad if Russian president Vladimir Putin attended it. Friday morning the president of the former USSR visited the grave of his wife Raisa Gorbacheva in the Novodevichye cemetery, reported the press service.