MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - Boris Yeltsin, the first post-Soviet president of Russia, celebrates his 75th birthday on Wednesday.

In a marked contrast to the previous few years, when the former leader has preferred to mark the occasion in private with his family and guests, the Kremlin will host a lavish reception with about 250 people including government officials and foreign dignitaries in attendance.

In particular, former and present world leaders, including former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and ex-President of the United States Bill Clinton, will be in Moscow to congratulate Yeltsin, who led the country from independence in 1991 to his early resignation on New Year's Eve in 1999. The incumbent presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan, Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev, will also be in the Russian capital for the event.

Widely credited with playing a key role in the collapse of communism, Yeltsin's defiance of Soviet hardliners was encapsulated when he stood on top of a tank in front of what is now the Russian government building in August 1991 to denounce a coup against the then president, Mikhail Gorbachev. However, by this time his relationship with the latter had irretrievably deteriorated, and he was at the forefront of liberal efforts that ended the existence of the world's most famous experiment with socialism.

Although health problems have dogged Yeltsin in recent years, he underwent heart surgery while in office and broke a hip in a fall last summer, an aide said he was in "good form" and had already received a prestigious award from the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexy II.

Media publications carrying different opinions on Yeltsin's tenure as president appeared on the eve of his birthday, while Vladimir Putin praised the contribution of his predecessor Tuesday, stressing the importance of the freedoms established during his tenure.

At a Kremlin press conference, Putin said there could be "different interpretations of that period in the country's history as well as the first president's role." Although he acknowledged that dramatic changes in Russia's political and social landscape had caused the population substantial suffering, Putin said Yeltsin's main legacy was freedom for the Russian people.

"[There can be] no doubt that during Yeltsin's rule, the Russian people were granted freedom," he said, "which was the main objective of all those reforms."