Doctors recommend Gorbachev to pull out of Nobel Prize winners' meeting

MOSCOW. November 12. KAZINFORM Doctors recommended former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to abstain from a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize winners in Japan, a spokeswoman said; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

"Mikhail Sergeevich [Gorbachev] will not go to Japan following recommendations from his doctors. The flight is too long for him. But he feels well," she said.

Gorbachev, who turns 80 next March, was the seventh and last leader of the Soviet Union and is well known for his reform attempts which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his "leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community."

The annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates will begin on Friday in Hiroshima, southwestern Japan. It will gather the award laureates together to discuss nuclear non-proliferation.

Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama and former Polish president Lech Walesa are listed among the participants. U.S. President Barack Obama, who won the Peace Prize last year, declined the invitation.

This year's winner, jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, will also not attend.