McCartney to play Red Square

Former Beatle Paul McCartney will play his first concert in Russia later this year -- in front of 100,000 fans in Red Square. McCartney, who wrote the Beatles’ hit “Back in the USSR” in the 1960s, said Wednesday he will play Red Square on May 24.

“I’ve long wanted to play in Russia, but for a number of years when the Communists were in power, they didn’t want me to,” McCartney said in a statement. “I’m delighted that at last I can play there.”

The Beatles, who were at the forefront of the cultural revolution in the West, were not welcome in the former Soviet Union during their heyday in the 1960s.