Gorbachev selected for 2008 Liberty Medal

PHILADELPHIA, June 13 (UPI) -- Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who presided over the end of the Soviet Union is to be this year's recipient of the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia.

The National Constitution Center announced that the medal is to be presented Sept. 18 by an old friend and colleague, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush. Bush, who received the medal in 2006 with former President Bill Clinton, is the center's chairman.

In addition to his elder statesman role in Russia, Gorbachev has continued to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons and for ecological causes, the center said.

"Mikhail Gorbachev came of age when Russia was ruled by a totalitarian regime, but his thinking as a political leader broke free of this repressive straight-jacket," said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. "Caring about the freedom and prosperity of his people, he negotiated the end of the costly and dangerous Cold War and oversaw the demise of the very political system that brought him to power. He was a true agent of change on the global stage."

The Liberty Medal was created as part of Philadelphia's celebration of the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. The first recipient was Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement in Poland, in 1989.