Mikhail Gorbachev takes part in the international conference “The 20th Anniversary of Perestroika: Its Impact on Today’s Global Political Processes”

      From September 29 to October 1, 2006, Mikhail Gorbachev made a trip to Hungary and Croatia. ZORA Hotel in the coastal Croatian town of Primosten, located on a picturesque peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, became the venue of the international conference themed “The 20th Anniversary of Perestroika: Its Impact on Today’s Global Political Processes.”
    The opening speech was made by Croatian President Stipe Mesic, who highly praised the bold transformations carried out in the Soviet Union under the guidance of Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s. He noted that those reforms greatly influenced the developments not only in Russia and Europe, but in the entire world as well.
     Speakers at the Conference included former French and Hungarian foreign ministers Roland Dumas and Janos Martonyi, ex-President of Romania Emil Constantinescu, and former Vice President of the European Parliament Janusz Onyszkiewicz. Letters to participants in the conference were sent by Lech Wałęsa, Bronisław Geremek, Founder and President of the Belgrade Fund of Political Excellence Sonja Licht, former Prime Minister of Hungary Miklos Nemeth, and ex-Canadian Prime Minister and Secretary General of the Club of Madrid Kim Campbell. Former US president George Bush addressed the participants of the Conference through a video message.
     Mikhail Gorbachev made an extended speech, in which he focused mostly on the lessons of Perestroika that are relevant today. The audience closely listened to his presentation.
     The Conference was attended by the Russian Ambassador to Croatia Mikhail Konarovsky.
     A gala diner was held in the evening to celebrate Mikhail Gorbachev. The Chairman of the Conference Organizing Committee Hungarian businessman Tamas Vitezy wished Mikhail Gorbachev a very happy 75th birthday on behalf of the participants in the Conference. Mikhail Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931.
     On the initiative of Croatian President Stipe Mesic, Mikhail Gorbachev had an unofficial one-on-one meeting with him. The two leaders had an extensive and fruitful exchange of opinion.
    On his way to Primosten, Mikhail Gorbachev made a three-hour stop in Hungary. At the invitation of the President of Hungary László Sólyom, he visited the residence of the head of state, where they had an unofficial one-on-one meeting.