Putin, Yeltsin Lead Tributes on Gorbachev’s 70th Birthday

MOSCOW —  Russian and foreign dignitaries paid tribute Friday to former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, marking his 70th birthday with flair in a country where most people dismiss the legacy of his reforms.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and even his predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin--Gorbachev’s bitter rival even after the 1991 collapse of communism--led the congratulations for the architect of perestroika, whose reforms opened up Soviet society.

In the morning, Gorbachev went to Novodevichy Cemetery, burial site for many illustrious Russians, to visit the grave of his wife, Raisa, whose 1999 death weighed heavily on him.

He was to be feted later by an array of prominent guests at a banquet.

Interviewed at length on television and in newspapers, Gorbachev acknowledged that the changes undertaken when he came to power in 1985 transformed a hidebound society.

“I think the main achievement was bringing the country out of a totalitarian state to freedom and democracy, recognition of different forms of ownership, that people could choose and run their own affairs,” he told ORT television. “That there was no longer one road to be taken, but several options.”