Algirdas Brazauskas, former president of Lithuania, dies at 77

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Algirdas Brazauskas, Lithuania’s first post-independence president, died at his home Saturday, his wife said. He was 77 and had been receiving treatment for cancer.

He became Lithuania’s first freely elected president in 1993, two years after the Baltic state regained independence from Moscow after five decades of Soviet occupation.

A former chairman of the Lithuanian Communist Party, Brazauskas gained popularity in the late 1980s by challenging the Kremlin with demands for more political and economic freedom.

More later at latimes.com/obituaries.

--Associated Press