Moldovan Man Shot Dead At Transdniester Checkpoint

A Moldovan man has died in a hospital in Chisinau after being shot by a Russian soldier from the international peacekeeping force at a checkpoint in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region.

A police spokesman in Chisinau said the man, aged 18, was driving his car on January 1 to a gas station nearby when he failed to stop at the Vadul lui Voda checkpoint, which is on a bridge over the Dniester River.

Russian and local troops are part of a contentious military presence in the region.

Moldova regards Russian troops still stationed in Transdniester as illegal.

Transdniester, a strip of land along Moldova's eastern border with Ukraine, declared independence from what was then the Soviet republic of Moldova in 1990.

No UN member state has recognized Transdniester's declaration of sovereignty.

with agency reports