predecessor successor children birth_place religion imagesize nationality party office primeminister birth_date term_start spouse image article_title term_end name
'' office created '' farid mukhametshin rustam minnikhanov rustam minnikhanov 2 anyakovo , tatar assr , soviet union sunni islam 172px russian united russia 1st president of tatarstan acting prime minister of tatarstan mukhammat sabirov farid mukhametshin rustam minnikhanov 20 january 1937 june 12 , 1991 may 27 , 1998 sakina shakirovna shaimieva rian mintimer shaimiyev.jpg archive 395745 president of the republic of tatarstan mintimer shaimiev
 march 25 , 2010 july 10 , 1998 mintimer Шаймиев sharipovich shaimiev mintimer Şərip uğlı Şəymiyev Минтимер Шарипович
mintimer shaimiev

mintimer Şərip uğlı Şəymiyev -lrb- ; -rrb- -lrb- born january 20 , 1937 -rrb- was the first to hold title of president of tatarstan , a republic within russia .
he is an ethnic tatar .
he became president on june 12 , 1991 , and was re-elected three times , on march 24 , 1996 , on march 25 , 2001 , and on march 25 , 2005 .
shaimiev was born in the village of anyakovo , in aktanyshsky district of the tatar assr .
he graduated from the kazan agricultural institute in 1959 , and worked as an agricultural engineer .
he joined the communist party in 1963 .
in 1967 he was an instructor and deputy head of the agricultural department at tatarstan 's regional party organization .
in 1969 shaimiev was appointed minister for amelioration and water economy of his republic and in 1983 he became the first deputy chair of the tatar council of ministers .
in september 1989 shaimiev became first secretary of tatarstan 's communist party organization .
in the same year he was elected to the ussr congress of peoples 's deputies .
in april 1990 he was elected speaker of tatarstan 's supreme soviet .
on august 31 , 1990 , the supreme soviet proclaimed the sovereignty of tatarstan .
on june 12 , 1991 , shaimiev was elected president of the tatar soviet socialist republic and as president issued a declaration during the attempted coup of august 1991 in moscow supporting the position of the emergency committee .
in march 1992 he held a referendum on tatarstan 's sovereignty during which 62 percent of the voters cast their ballots in favor of sovereignty .
in 2001 , he and moscow 's mayor yuri luzhkov founded the united russia party .
saying that he wanted to make way for a new generation of leadership -- in accordance with a call from president dmitry medvedev -- shaimiev told medvedev in january 2010 that he did not want to be nominated for another term as president of tatarstan .
he said that rustam minnikhanov , the prime minister of tatarstan , was his preferred successor .
medvedev then nominated minnikhanov to succeed shaimiev on january 27 , 2010 .
