Vladimir Voronin

Vladimir Voronin (pronounced [vladiˈmir voˈronin]; born Vladimir Bujeniță, 25 May 1941) is a Moldovan politician. He was the third president of Moldova from 2001 until 2009 and has been the First Secretary of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) since 1994. He was Europe's first democratically elected communist party head of state after the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc.

For the late Soviet Arctic explorer, see Vladimir Voronin (captain).
Vladimir Voronin
MP
Voronin in 2014
Member of the Moldovan Parliament
Assumed office
23 July 2021
Parliamentary groupBloc of Communists and Socialists
In office
22 April 2009 – 9 March 2019
Parliamentary groupParty of Communists
In office
17 March 2005 – 8 April 2005
Succeeded byAlexandru Jdanov
Parliamentary groupParty of Communists
In office
9 April 1998 – 18 April 2001
Succeeded byValeriu Burca
Parliamentary groupParty of Communists
Leader of the Party of Communists
Assumed office
24 December 1994
President of Moldova
In office
7 April 2001 – 11 September 2009
Prime MinisterDumitru Braghiș
Vasile Tarlev
Zinaida Greceanîi
Preceded byPetru Lucinschi
Succeeded byMihai Ghimpu (acting)
President of the Moldovan Parliament
In office
12 May 2009 – 14 August 2009
PresidentHimself
Prime MinisterZinaida Greceanîi
DeputyVladimir Țurcan
Grigore Petrenco
Preceded byMarian Lupu
Succeeded byMihai Ghimpu
Minister of Internal Affairs of the Moldavian SSR
In office
17 February 1989 – 24 May 1990
PremierIvan Calin
Petru Pascari
Preceded byGheorghe Lavranciuc
Personal details
Born
Vladimir Bujeniță

(1941-05-25) 25 May 1941
Corjova, Transnistria Governorate, Kingdom of Romania
(now Moldova)
Citizenship Moldova
 Russia[1][2]
Political partyCommunist Party (Before 1991)
Party of Communists (1993–present)
SpouseTaisia Mihailovna
ChildrenOleg
Valentina
Alma materCooperation College
All-Union Institute for Food Industry
Academy of Social Sciences
Soviet Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

Family and education

Vladimir Voronin was born as Vladimir Bujeniță in the village of Corjova, located that time in the Romanian-administered Transnistria Governorate. Although Voronin is a lifelong communist who pursued unfriendly policies towards Romania at various times during the 2000s, his grandfather Isidor Sârbu was an anticommunist fighter in Romania after 1944.[3][4][5] Voronin's mother, Pelagheia Bujeniță, died on 2 July 2005.[6] His biological father, Nicolae Bujeniță, died during World War II. Voronin was raised by his step-father, Nikolai Voronin, an ethnic Russian and a communist activist.[7]

Voronin graduated from the Cooperation Tekhnikum (Kooperativny tekhnikum) of Chișinău (1961), the All-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 Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union (1991).

Early career

He began working in 1961 as the head of a 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.

After 1971, 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 served as first secretary of the Bender City Committee of the Communist Party. Between 1988 and 1990, he held the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Moldovan SSR. In this capacity he advocated against the use of force to quell anti-Soviet popular demonstrations on 7 and 10 November 1989,[8] a regretful reference to which he made when addressing the country on TV on 8 April 2009 after anti-government protests were quelled by the police. 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). He played a central role in reviving the Communist Party after it was banned in 1991–1993. In 1994 he was elected President of the PCRM. He was a candidate for the post of President of the now-independent Republic of Moldova at the 1996 elections. In the parliamentary election in March 1998, Vladimir Voronin was elected as a Member of Parliament. He then served as member of its Permanent Bureau and as president of the PCRM's parliamentary faction, which held 40 of 101 seats.

Voronin was nominated as Prime Minister of Moldova by President Petru Lucinschi in late 1999, but the nomination was unsuccessful because Voronin did not have enough support in parliament.[9] In the parliamentary election in February 2001, he was again elected as a Member of Parliament.

Presidential career

First mandate
Voronin at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2003
Voronin with Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev in Moscow in 2001

The PCRM won 50.07% of the vote and 71 of the 101 seats in the February 2001 parliamentary election; by this time the constitution had been changed to provide for election of the President through the Parliament rather than popular vote.[9] In March the PCRM's Central Committee nominated Voronin as its presidential candidate at a plenum,[10] and on 4 April 2001 Voronin was elected as President by the Parliament. Of the 89 deputies participating in the vote, 71 voted for Voronin, 15 voted for Dumitru Braghiş, and three voted for Valerian Cristea.[11] He was sworn in at a ceremony in Chişinău on 7 April 2001.[12] The Constitutional Court ruled that the President could also lead a political party, and Voronin was re-elected as the PCRM's leader.[9]

Voronin 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. These measures helped to maintain support for his government, but Moldova still remained the poorest country in Europe throughout his presidency, with around 38% of GDP coming from remittances of Moldovans working abroad (2008). Voronin's tenure as President was marked by fluctuating relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

From January to April 2002, opposition forces organized large demonstrations in protest against several controversial government proposals, including expanded use of the Russian language in schools, and plans for its designation as a second official language. While the demonstrations were tense at times, the government did not use force and ultimately agreed to mediation by the Council of Europe.

In 2003, Voronin's government backtracked over signing a Russian-proposed federalization settlement with the breakaway region of Transnistria (Kozak memorandum). On the same year, Voronin claimed that "Romania has remained the only empire in Europe, consisting of Moldavia, Dobruja and Transylvania", provoking a diplomatic conflict with Romania and the President of Romania Ion Iliescu.[13][14] In 2004, Voronin branded the leadership of Transnistria "a transnational criminal group", and ordered an economic blockade of Transnistria after its authorities closed several Romanian-speaking schools.

Second mandate
Voronin at a meeting with Medvedev and Smirnov in Barvikha on 18 February 2009, at which Transnistria issues were discussed

In the parliamentary election in March 2005, the PCRM received 46.1% of the vote and won 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 received the necessary support from the Christian Democratic People's Party, the Democratic and Social Liberal factions, after he 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 election, leaving the Our Moldova Alliance (AMN) of the former Mayor of Chişinău Serafim Urechean as the second-largest party in Parliament, with 26 seats.) In the presidential election held in Parliament on 4 April 2005, Voronin was re-elected with 75 votes; another candidate, Gheorghe Duca, received one vote, and two votes were invalid.[15]

Political agenda during tenure
2006 stamp

The declared main goals of his political agenda were:

  • Closer ties with the Russian Federation and "integration in Europe"; solving the Transnistria conflict; EU cooperation (and membership if possible); strong opposition to NATO membership; independence, as opposed to a unification with Romania.[16]

Events of 2009 and resignation

After the parliamentary election held on 5 April 2009, the PCRM won 49.48% of the vote and 60 seats, one seat too few to elect a President. Voronin was elected Speaker of the Parliament and retained the Presidency of Moldova with an interim status. The police crackdown of the civil unrest in April 2009 antagonized the society, and the communists were unable to secure one additional vote out of the 41 MPs from the three opposition parties; a snap parliamentary election was necessary.

In the snap parliamentary election in July 2009, the PCRM won 44.69% of the vote, which is more votes than any other individual party, and gained 48 seats, but it lost its parliamentary majority to a coalition of opposition parties which has 53 seats. However, the opposition also failed to obtain enough seats to elect a President, thereby producing more uncertainty. Voronin announced on 2 September 2009 that he intended to resign, saying that his position as acting President had become "ambiguous and doubtful".[17] He resigned on 11 September 2009.[18][19] The President sent a letter to Parliament confirming his intention to resign.[20] Mihai Ghimpu succeeded Voronin as acting president until a proper President could be elected.[21]

Post-presidential years

The pro-Western parliamentary majority on 29 December 2009 blocked Voronin's election to Moldova's permanent delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.[22] In February 2010, Vladimir Voronin and his wife returned the diplomatic passports which they were keeping illegally.[23][24]

According to the last opinion polls carried out in 2019 regarding the most popular politicians of the Republic of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin is ranked on the seventh position among the top of politicians which enjoyed the highest trust of Moldovans[25][26] and according to some other polls he is ranked at the eighth position.[27][28]

Political views

Voronin identifies himself as a left-wing politician, he is strongly conservative on social issues. He is against immigration[29] and he rejects the building of mosques in Moldova,[30] as well as LGBT rights.[31] His remarks towards the African-born activist John Onoje[32] ("They [the ruling parties] brought here a Negro, who'd just climbed down from a tree, and now he's doing politics for them.") are still regarded as controversial.[33][34][35][36]

Despite the fact that his grandfather Isidor Sârbu emigrated to Romania, Voronin considers Moldovans and Romanians two different ethnic groups. Some of his declarations were considered anti-Romanian.[37][38][39][40][41]

Personal life

Vladimir Voronin is married to Taisia Mihailovna (a Ukrainian) and has two children, a son Oleg and a daughter Valentina. Voronin's CV states he is an economist, engineer, political science graduate, and jurist by education. In October 2012, Voronin and his wife celebrated their golden marriage anniversary. He has the military rank of Major General from the former USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (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 citizenship of the Republic of Moldova, because he used to receive a pension as a former Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs employee, from the time he lived as a private citizen in Moscow in 1991–1993.[42] His son, Oleg Voronin, is arguably the richest businessman in Moldova. His daughter is a physician, but unlike Oleg not a public figure. On 19 February 2010, Voronin told journalists that the questioning of his son is an attempt of revenge against his family by the current authorities. Oleg is suspected of fiscal evasion and money laundering.[43]

Honours and awards

References
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  2. "Formatiune politica declara ca detine probe potrivit carora Vladimir Voronin detine cetatenia rusa". 11 December 2007. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  3. (in Russian) An early publication mentioning this fact was a 2005 article by Gheorghe Budeanu in the Romanian-language weekly Timpul, issue 328 (Russian translation of the article Archived 12 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine).
  4. (in Romanian) Ziua, 27 March 2008 Archived 25 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine (full article in Romanian)
  5. "Voronin's secret: ZIUA". Ziua.ro. Archived from the original on 24 January 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2008.
  6. "Скончалась мать президента Молдавии Владимира Воронина". Regnum.ru. Archived from the original on 6 August 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  7. https://www.zdg.md/reporter-special/reportaje/transnistreanul-valodia-un-om-bun-dintr-un-partid-rau/
  8. "The Moldovan Communists: From Leninism to Democracy?" Archived 2006-03-14 at the Wayback Machine by Luke March, Eurojournal.org, September 2005.
  9. Political Parties of the World (6th edition, 2005), ed. Bogdan Szajkowski, page 414.
  10. "Moldovan communists determined to keep links with West", Kommersant (nl.newsbank.com), March 7, 2001.
  11. "Moldovan Communist Party leader elected president", Basapress news agency (nl.newsbank.com), April 4, 2001.
  12. "Moldovan president sworn in", ITAR-TASS news agency (nl.newsbank.com), April 7, 2001.
  13. "FOCUS: Relațiile România-R. Moldova - când calde, când reci, condimentate cu acuzații reciproce". Mediafax (in Romanian). 25 January 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
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  42. http://old.azi.md/print/47385/En
  43. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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  45. "В ходе Первосвятительского визита в Молдову Предстоятель Русской Церкви совершил малое освящение храма Рождества Пресвятой Богородицы Курковского монастыря / Новости". Patriarchia/ru. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
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