Kontsert Kontsert Kontsert () (Russian: Концерт, commonly changed to Kohuept, ) is the second live album by Billy Joel, released in 1987. The album was recorded during the Soviet leg of Joel's 1987 "The Bridge" tour. This album was co-produced by Jim Boyer and Brian Ruggles; mixed by Jim Boyer as well. During the Cold War, rock music was not allowed in the U.S.S.R. because it was not seen as part of Soviet culture. In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev implemented glasnost—the Soviet policy of managed openness—and the Kremlin invited Billy Joel to perform in the Soviet Union in 1986. Joel, being a
Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union weakened, and centralized power from Moscow was unable to combat centrifugal forces in the South. In the elections, many Party candidates were defeated. Furthermore, Boris Yeltsin was elected as mayor of Moscow and returned to political prominence to become an increasingly vocal critic of Gorbachev. Gorbachev chose a vice president; but when first Shevardnadze, then Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, turned it down, Gorbachev chose Gennady Yanayev, the head of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and a known hardliner. This decision would come back to haunt Gorbachev later. In contrast to the controversy at home