Story highlights Putin congratulated Lazar Matveyev on his birthday and the upcoming Victory Day

The Russian President offered a toast and presented gifts

(CNN) Vladimir Putin's former KGB boss received a special surprise on the eve of Victory Day.

It was a personal visit by the Russian President, who also took the opportunity to congratulate Lazar Matveyev on his 90th birthday.

"The President conveyed heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Matveyev on his birthday and the upcoming Victory Day and offered a toast to his health," reads a statement by the Kremlin.

Putin presented Matveyev a presidential watch and a copy of Pravda newspaper published on the date of his birth in 1927.

Lazar Matveyev (far right) receives a copy of Pravda that was published on the day of his birth.

Matveyev was Putin's supervisor in East Germany in the second half of the 1980s, says the Kremlin. East Germany was a communist country aligned with the Soviet Union. East and West Germany were officially reunited in 1990.

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