Mircea Snegur, who oversaw Moldova's break from the Soviet Union and the newly independent country's first president, has died at the age of 83 after a prolonged illness.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Constantin Tampiza said on September 14 that Snegur, who led the country from 1990 to 1997, died overnight after a yearslong battle with an unspecified illness.
President Maia Sandu expressed condolences to Snegur's family, friends, and colleagues and asked the presidential office to organize the funeral with state honors for the former president. She also declared September 16 as a day of mourning.
"Mr. Snegur lived in historic times and had an essential role in promoting the independence, freedom and sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova. Mircea Snegur will remain in our memory as the man who stood at the cradle of the independence of the Republic of Moldova," Sandu's statement on Facebook said.
In August 1989, while he was chairman of the Presidium of the Soviet Moldova Supreme Council, Snegur initiated the move making Romanian the official state language.
Snegur (right) in 1998
Born on January 17, 1940 in the village of Trifanesti, Snegur became president of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic on September 3, 1990, after the Moldovan Supreme Council approved his nomination to the post.
He then led the Republic of Moldova to its proclamation of independence on August 27, 1991, and in July 1992 Snegur and then Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed an agreement to stop a conflict over Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region -- populated mainly by ethnic Russians -- that broke out between Chisinau and Russia-backed separatists. Transdniester remains a de facto independent region.
In an interview with RFE/RL in March 2022, days after Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Snegur drew a parallel between developments around Transdniester 30 years ago and the Kremlin's move against Ukraine, adding Kyiv faced a situation of much larger proportions.
He also warned that Moldova was not secure because of the war against Ukraine, though he hoped that with international support the conflict wouldn't spill onto Moldovan territory.
Russia still keeps more than 1,000 troops in Transdniester as "peacekeepers."