Background
Igor Dodon was born on 18 February 1975 in Sadova village in the Călărași District of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Igor Dodon was born on 18 February 1975 in Sadova village in the Călărași District of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
He studied economics at the State Agricultural University of Moldova (Universitatea Agrară de Stat din Moldova) and received a doctorate in 1998 from the Academy of Economic Science in Moldova (Academia de Studii Economice din Moldova).
He has held various teaching positions in Moldova. Dodon was appointed to the post of Associate Minister of Trade and Economics in May 2005. He assumed the position of Minister of Trade and Economics in September 2006.
He held the position until September 2009, when the government of Zinaida Greceanîi ended.
Dodon also held the post of Associate Prime Minister under Greceanîi from 2008 until 2009. In 2011, Dodon lost to Dorin Chirtoacă in the election for mayor of Chisinau.
He took 49.4% of the vote. Greceanîi and Veronica Abramchuk left at the same time.
Dodon joined the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova and was elected chairman of the party on 18 December 2011.
Dodon left the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova in November 2011 citing hopes that a deal could be worked out with the ruling Alliance for European Integration to elect a president and end a constitutional crisis that had dragged on since the resignation of Vladimir Voronin in 2009.
He is a member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and served as Minister of Trade and Economics in the governments of Vasile Tarlev and Zinaida Greceanîi from September 2006 to September 2009.