[2] On 25 January 2012, a group of European parliamentaries issued a call to the participants of the 5+2 format negotiations to replace the current Russian military contingent with an international civil peacekeeping mission.
[4] The incident occurred at the 9th peacekeeping checkpoint on a bridge across the Dniester River, between the Transnistrian village of Pârâta and the Moldovan town of Vadul lui Vodă, early in the morning of 1 January 2012.
According to reports, civilians Vadim Pisari and Constantin Bologan from the village of Pîrîta on the eastern bank of the Dniester drove a car to the neighbouring town of Vadul lui Vodă.
[16] On the same day, the prime minister of Moldova Vlad Filat condemned the incident, ordered compensation payments to be made to the family of the victim, and called for a joint Moldovan-Russian investigation.
[1] On January 3, protesters signed a letter addressed to the Moldovan Government, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the international community, asking for immediate withdrawal of all fifteen peacekeeping points in the Dniester River area.
[24] On January 2, a statement released by the Russia's ambassador to Moldova, Valery Kuzmin, claimed that Vadim Pisari bore much responsibility for the shooting, citing "repeated crude violations on the part of the victim, who was in a state of alcoholic intoxication and driving a car that did not belong to him."
The Russian Embassy in Chișinău also cited "damage to the gate, the danger of running over one of the peacekeepers, speeding through barriers, failure to obey the command to pull over even after warning shots in the air."
[citation needed] The United States and Germany issued statements urging Russia and Moldova to avoid a rise in tension in the security zone and to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident.
[29][30] On 25 January, 31 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe signed a declaration calling for an international civil peacekeeping mission to replace the current one in Transnistria.
The declaration also noted the protests in local villages and stated that "the preliminary investigation proves the Russian peacekeeper had no reason to open fire on the vehicle".