I'm from around that region so I'm quite familiar.

Just because Putin says those people are Russians so he can claim some clay, doesn't make it a fact.

Sure some are ethnically Russian, but that doesn't make them Russian citizens of the Federal Russian Republic.

They are Moldovan citizens. Transnistria is a rouge separatist nation that's not internationally recognized and only exists on paper because Russia is a nuclear power which has troops and weapons there and Moldova is too weak to do anything about it.