Biography
Vladimir Nicolae
Voronin born May 25, 1941 (Russian: Âëàäèìèð Íèêîëàåâè÷ Âîðîíèí,
Vladimir Nikolaevich Voronin) is a Moldovan communist politician, and
the current President of the Republic of Moldova.
Early career
Voronin was born in the village Corjova, Dubăsari, in Transnistria. He
graduated the Co-operative College of Chişinău (1961), the Soviet Union
Institute for Food Industry (1971), the Academy of Social Sciences of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1983),
and the Academy of the Ministry of Home Affairs (Interior) of the Soviet
Union (1991).
He began working in 1961 as the head of the bakery in the town of
Criuleni. From 1966 until 1971, Voronin held the offices of
vice-director of the bread factory in Criuleni and head of the bread
factory in Dubăsari.
For the next ten years, he was active in the state administration of the
Moldavian SSR, being in turn a member of the Dubăsari and Ungheni
township executive committees, of the Ungheni District Executive
Committee, and, starting 1983, inspector and vice-director of the
Organization Section of the Central Committee of the Moldavian branch of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1985, he was appointed head
of section in the Council of Ministers of the Moldavian SSR. Between
1985 and 1989, Voronin worked as first-secretary of the Bender (Tighina)
Town Committee of the Communist Party. In 1989 and 1990, he held the
office of the Minister of Home Affairs of the Moldavian SSR. In this
capacity he advocated against the use of force [1] to quell the
anti-Soviet popular demonstrations of November 7 and 10th 1989. Voronin
was also a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR of 10th and
11th legislatures.
In 1993, Voronin became the co-president of the Organizational Committee
for the creation of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM).
In 1994 he was elected as First Secretary of the PCRM. In the same year,
he was candidate for the post of President of the now-independent
Republic of Moldova. In March 1998, Vladimir Voronin was elected as
Member of the Parliament, and served as member of its Permanent Bureau,
and as president of the PCRM parliamentary faction.
In February 2001, he was again elected Member of the Parliament (the
15th legislature since the creation of Moldavian SSR in 1940).
As President
He has been elected President of the Republic of Moldova by the
Parliament on April 7, 2001. Politically, Voronin has maintained his
commitment to the reduction of Moldova's chronic poverty by allocating
more resources to social safety net items such as health, education, and
increasing pensions and salaries. His tenure has been marked by
fluctuating relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank. Voronin proceeded with former President Petru Lucinschi's
plans to privatize several important state-owned industries, and on
occasion even broke with his own party over important issues.
From January to April 2002, large demonstrations took place in
opposition to several controversial government proposals, including
expanded use of the Russian language in schools, and its designation as
a second official language. While the demonstrations were tense at
times, the government did not use force and ultimately agreed to Council
of Europe mediation.
In 2003, Voronin's government backtracked over signing a
Russian-proposed federalization settlement with the separatist
Transnistria region. In 2004, Voronin branded the leadership of the
Transnistria "a transnational criminal group", and ordered an economic
blockade of Transnistria after the breakaway region closed
Moldovan-speaking schools.
In March 2005 parliamentary elections, the PCRM received 46.1% of the
vote, or 56 seats in the 101-member Parliament —more than enough for the
51-vote minimum required to remain in government, but short of the 61
votes necessary to elect a president. However, President Voronin was
re-elected with support from the Christian Democratic People's Party and
from the Democratic and Social Liberal factions, after Voronin promised
to deliver on needed reforms and Euro-Atlantic integration for the
country. The latter two factions broke away from the Electoral Bloc
“Moldova Democrată” following the elections, leaving the Our Moldova
Alliance (AMN) of former Chişinău Mayor Serafim Urechean as the
second-largest party in Parliament, with 26 seats.
Voronin is married and has two children. He is an economical engineer,
political science graduate, and jurist by formation. He has military
rank of Major General from the former-USSR Ministry of Interior
(equivalent of NATO OF-6 Brigadier General - see Ranks and insignia of
the Soviet military and Ranks and insignia of NATO). Some argue that he
also holds Russian citizenship in addition to the one of the Republic of
Moldova, from the time he lived as a private person in Moscow in
1991-1993.
Main goals of political agenda
closer links with the European Union
solving the Transnistria conflict
NATO cooperation (without membership)
Friendship with Russia |
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