Tom Markovich Zenovich (; February 25, 1939 – May 8, 2022) was a politician and former presidential candidate from

Transnistria Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a Landlocked country, landlocked Transnistria conflict#International recognition of Transnistria, breakaway state internationally recogn ...

, a break-away region of

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

. Prior to his presidential run in 2001 he was mayor of Bender, Transnistria's second largest city. He claims that as a result of opposing Igor Smirnov, he was subject to

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

that spread rumours that he was a Jew (which is not true) and was forced to give up his seat as mayor. In the biography of his political program posters he described his occupation as "unemployed". He told the British Helsinki Human Rights Group that he feared for his personal safety after the elections. He is an advocate of conditional re-unification with Moldova and pro-

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

. Tom Zenovich is fluent in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, but he almost does not speak

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. As a presidential candidate in the 9 December 2001 Transnistrian presidential election he came second, failing to beat the incumbent Igor Smirnov but getting more votes than his other rival, human rights activist Alexander Radchenko.

References

External links

* Report of British Helsinki Human Rights Group 2022 deaths Transnistrian politicians 1939 births {{Moldova-politician-stub