YEKATERINBURG, November 25. /TASS/. The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center is opening in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday. More than 30,000 exhibits and 13,000 photos are on display. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will take part in the formal opening ceremony.

The tradition of preserving the historical heritage of the presidents appeared in the United States in 1939 after a decision taken by the 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt to donate to the federal government all his personal items and official papers for the organization of the historical archive.

The Yeltsin Center was founded in accordance with the federal law "On the Centers of the Historical Legacy of the Russian Presidents Who Have Stopped Exercising their Powers" passed in 2008. According to Deputy Executive Director of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center Lyudmila Telen, the government allocated 5 billion rubles ($76 million) from the federal budget for the setting up of the center.

The Yeltsin Center has nearly 50 sponsors. These are well-known politicians, among them Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, large companies as well as Russian business people.