Mircea Ion Snegur was the first President of Moldova. In the Soviet era, he was often known in English as Mircha Ivanovich Snegur, a transliteration from the Russian "Мирча Иванович Снегур". A former Communist Party official, Snegur endorsed independence for Moldova and actively sought Western recognition. Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Mircea Snegur. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_Snegur