Political analyst Silviu Brucan, former communist Ambassador to US, dies aged 90

Romanian political analyst Silviu Brucan, known in the West as former Ambassador of communist Romania to the US and UN, died following a heart failure while hospitalized in Bucharest on Thursday night. Brucan, 90, had undergone a surgical intervention for heart affection earlier this month.

Brucan served as Ambassador of communist Romania to the US (1955) and the United Nations (1959-1962). He later turned against Communist Party leadership under ex-dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and was one of the signatories of a “Letter of six communist dignitaries”, a protest addressed to Ceausescu in 1989.

After the 1989 revolution he became a political analyst popularized in TV talk-shows.