The first president of Moldova, Mircea Snegur, died

The first president of Moldova, Mircea Snegur, died at the age of 83. Former Deputy Prime Minister Konstantin Tampiza, who worked with Snegur, reported this on his Facebook page (owned by Meta, a company recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).

“September 13 at 23:30 [бывший] President of the Republic of Moldova Mircea Snegur died of an incurable disease,” he wrote.

Tampiza expressed his condolences to the family of the former president.

Mircea Snegur was born on January 17, 1940. He received his higher education at the Chisinau Agricultural Institute, and then completed his postgraduate studies there at the Department of Plant Growing. Afterwards he worked as an agronomist, chairman of a collective farm, and led scientific and production enterprises of the republic.

In 1981, Snegur became the first secretary of the district committee in the city of Edinet, and four years later he took the post of secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova. Afterwards he was chairman of the Supreme Council of the Moldavian SSR.

In September 1990, Snegur was appointed to the newly created post of president. He led the country until 1996. During Snegur’s time in power, the USSR collapsed in 1991. The first president of Moldova did not support the new union treaty proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev. During the August putsch, Snegur supported Boris Yeltsin.

Mircea Snegur has many state awards, including the “Badge of Honor” and the medal “For Labor Valor”. In 1995 he was awarded an honorary diploma and a Gold Medal of the European Order of Merit. He was also awarded the honorary titles of doctor honoris causa from the Chisinau Agrarian University, Ankara University and the Free International University of Moldova (2001).