Andrei Safonov

Andrei Safonov (Андре́й Миха́йлович Сафо́нов; born 6 June 1964) is a politician from Transnistria. He lives in Bender, Transnistria's second largest city.

Biography
Safonov ran for president against incumbent president Igor Smirnov in the election held on December 10, 2006, and came third with 3.9% of the vote.

He is a former teacher of literature and a former member of the parliament of the MSSR (Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic), within the USSR. After Transnistria's declaration of independence, September 2, 1990, he founded the official news agency Olvia Press. He was subsequently appointed Minister of Education, Science and Culture, a post he held until 1999 when he formed an opposition movement to Igor Smirnov and an opposition newspaper, founded in 2000, called Novaia Gazeta.