MAY 24, 2003 – Sir Paul McCartney was given a personal guided tour of the Kremlin by Premier Vladimir Putin, who was reported as telling him, “You are loved here”. The pair then sat down for tea before the former Beatle headed to Red Square for his very first performance behind the iron curtain in front of an eager audience of 20,000.
A live DVD released in June 2005 was composed of footage taken during his concerts in Red Square and St. Petersburg’s Palace Square. Songs from Beatles, Wings and solo albums were performed. Each song was interspersed with interviews regarding the Beatles’ banning in the Soviet Union in the 1960s, and how fans had to spend large sums of money on buying records from the black market.
In November 2013, Sir Paul made a lyrical appeal in a letter to Putin for the release of the 28 Greenpeace International campaigners and two freelance journalists who remained in detention in St Petersburg, facing charges of piracy and hooliganism. They were arrested following a peaceful protest against Arctic oil drilling.
“Forty-five years ago I wrote a song about Russia for the White Album, back when it wasn’t fashionable for English people to say nice things about your country. That song had one of my favourite Beatles lines in it: “Been away so long I hardly knew the place, gee it’s good to be back home.” Could you make that come true for the Greenpeace prisoners?”
The pair were apparently on first name terms, as Sir Paul’s letter revealed:
“Vladimir, millions of people in dozens of countries would be hugely grateful if you were to intervene to bring about an end to this affair. I understand of course that the Russian courts and the Russian Presidency are separate. Nevertheless I wonder if you may be able to use whatever influence you have to reunite the detainees with their families?”
