Former Soviet Leader Gorbachev Records Album

By Alexandra Odynova

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: June 19, 2009 (Issue # 1484)

MOSCOW — Mikhail Gorbachev has added crooner to his skill set.

The former Soviet leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate said Tuesday that he recorded an album of old Russian romantic ballads to raise money for a charity dedicated to his late wife, Raisa.

“The disc includes seven of Raisa Maximovna’s favorite romantic songs. I sang them myself, with Andrei Makarevich playing the background music,” Gorbachev said at a news conference at his Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow, Interfax reported. Makarevich is the founder and frontman of the rock group Mashina Vremeni.

Only one copy of the album, “Songs for Raisa,” was made, and it was auctioned off at a charity dinner at London’s Hampton Court on June 6, according to the web site of the Gorbachev Foundation.