51�Թ�

There were queues at polling stations in Moscow, Italy and among voters from a mainly Russian-speaking breakaway region of Transnistria, who had to cross the River Dniester into Moldovan-controlled territory to vote.

Transnistria, which has a population of about 470,000, is a thin strip of territory located between the eastern bank of the Dniester River and Moldova’s border with Ukraine.

The call for Russian protection by Transnistria, a self-declared but internationally unrecognized microstate on the eastern bank of the Dniester River, escalated tensions that date to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

One video shows a man swimming across the Dniester River towards Moldova, with Moldovan border guards urging him across to safety.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the territory — a 1,600-square-mile enclave of mostly ethnic Russians and Ukrainians on the eastern bank of the Dniester River — opposed Moldova’s attempts to merge with Romania and declared itself a Soviet republic in 1990.