Vladimir Rilyakov

Vladimir Markovich Rilyakov (; born 7 July 1947) is a Transnistrian politician. He was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1990 to 1993 and a member of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic from 1990 to 2005.

Early career

Vladimir Markovich Rilyakov was born on 7 July 1947 in Tiraspol, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union. Rilyakov worked at the Elektromash Electronics Concern factory from 1969 to 1990 in various roles and leaders positions. Among those positions, he was the senior foreman and later the head of the workshop and production. While working, he attended the Zaporizhzhia Industrial Technical School from which he graduated in 1984. During , Rilyakov was the secretary of the factory's communist party committee.

Political career

On 11 August 1989, Rilyakov became the co-chairman of the Tiraspol United Council of Labor Collectives (OSTK), an organization that opposed Moldovan unification with Romania. The Tiraspol OSTK claimed that such unification would lead to the nationality-based discrimination of Moldovan workers, and the organization organized strikes in regions of the Moldavian SSR east of the Dniester river. For Rilyakov's role in establishing the Tiraspol OSTK, he was expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR legalized Moldovan (Romanian) as a state language, Rilyakov led a protest march in Gagauzia. In 2022, Transnistrian president Vadim Krasnoselsky awarded Rilyakov the Order of Friendship.