Russian ambassador summoned to Foreign Ministry

The Russian Ambassador to Moldova Valery Kuzmin was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration on January 2 following the incident in the security zone, where a young man was shot mortally by a Russian peacekeeper, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to a communiqué from the institution, Minister Iurie Leanca expressed his concern and stressed the importance of fully and immediately elucidating the circumstances of the incident. The Russian party was asked to ensure the necessary cooperation with the Moldovan investigation bodies. In the same connection, there was reiterated Moldova’s principled position as regards the necessity of transforming the current peacekeeping mechanism into an internationally-mandated civil mission that would meet the real necessities and would prevent such tragic events in the future. Valery Kuzmin expressed his regret at the incident and sent his condolences to the relatives of the killed young man. He said the Russian party is interested in the investigation of this case. On January 1, a Russian officer of the peacekeeping forces serving in the security zone of Transnistrian shot fatally a local at a checkpoint on the Nistru River. The young man was driving a car and the patrol sentinel shot from behind. In May, Vadim Pisari would have turned 19.