A man in Russia's southern Chuvashia region faces up to 15 years in jail after a farmer he hit in a row over a piglet died, choking on his knocked-out tooth.

The incident occured in May this year, when the visiting farmer bought five piglets off the other man in a marketplace, local police said.

A fight erupted between the two men when the seller took one of the pigs back.

"In the course of fight, the man hit the 56-year-old farmer several times on the head, knocking out his tooth, on which the latter choked and died," police said in a statement.