Paul McCartney [ tickets ] is scheduled to play a May 24 show at Moscow's Red Square, an event that will mark the ex-Beatle's first-ever Russian concert.

The event, which will be his only Russian performance this year, is expected to attract a crowd of 100,000, according to a statement issued by McCartney's camp.

"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."

During the '60s and '70s, radio play of Beatles songs--considered seditious to the Communist state--was forbidden by the Soviet government. Newspapers weren't allowed to write about the group, there were no TV broadcasts about the Beatles and stores were not allowed to sell their albums.

According to a press release, McCartney is planning for Moscow a three-hour concert during which 20 of the 36 songs he plays will be Beatles classics.

McCartney opens the European leg of his current Back in the World tour on Tuesday (3/25).

The three-month tour is in support of a 37-song live album titled "Back in the World" and a 3-hour DVD filmed on the tour's U.S. leg titled "Back in the U.S."