Transport Minister Putin had just dismissed found dead

MoscowRoman Starovoit, Russia's former transport minister, was found dead hours after Vladimir Putin removed him from office. According to the Investigative Committee, an analogue of the prosecutor's office, the main hypothesis is that he committed suicide. His body was found in some bushes next to a public parking lot in the Moscow region where his private car was parked, with a pistol at his side. According to several media outlets, the weapon he allegedly used to shoot himself was an award he had received from the Interior Ministry in 2023. While the cause of Starovoit's death, 53, is being investigated, the Russian press suggests he may be implicated in a case of alleged fraud and embezzlement in the construction industry in May 2024. Three months after he was removed from office, Ukrainian soldiers invaded this territory, unable to withstand Russian defenses, occupying more than 1,000 square kilometers.

His successor as governor, Aleksei Smirnov, was arrested last April, accused of corruption and fraud for having diverted 10 million euros intended to protect the region. He and other politicians implicated in the case have also allegedly implicated Starovoit, who could have faced a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Russian media report that police intended to arrest the Transport Minister this Monday night for questioning.

They also indicate that the death occurred this Monday morning, after he had attended a meeting at the ministry and his dismissal was made public. This would be the first Russian prime minister to commit suicide during the post-Soviet period, specifically, since the coup d'état of August 1991, when the most involutionary sectors of the Communist Party, the Army, and the KGB failed in their attempt to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev's government.

Hours after Starovoit's dismissal, Putin appointed Andrei Nikitin, who had previously been his deputy minister, as head of the Transport Ministry. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had assured, hours before the news of Starovoit's death broke, that the dismissal was not related to "a loss of confidence" in him. However, sources in the transport industry have assured Reuters that plans to fold it had been in the works for weeks, at least since before the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, which took place between June 16 and 20.

Furthermore, in the hours before his death, he had been in the eye of the storm due to the chaos at Russian airports. More than 2,000 flights have been affected since Saturday, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg, due to the threat of Ukrainian drones. Almost 500 have had to be canceled and 1,900 have been delayed, in a latest episode of a problem that has become increasingly frequent in recent months and has forced some airports to close several times since the spring.

Since his appointment, Starovoit had had to face this and other challenges, such as Ukrainian sabotage against Russian logistics, especially against the railway system, which had also recently disrupted the operation of military and freight trains. He was a classic Russian career civil servant, with an eclectic profile, with advanced degrees in public administration, specializing in engineering, and a doctoral thesis in winter sports pedagogy. Before being appointed governor of Kursk in 2018, he headed the Federal Road Agency for six years.

Another sudden death

Also on Monday, another Transport Ministry official, Andrei Korneichuk, died during a meeting. According to sources close to the security forces, after learning of Starovoit's death, he abruptly stood up and collapsed, leaving paramedics unable to revive him. Korneichuk, 42, was deputy director of the Transport Ministry's land fund department.

Last Friday, another death of a Russian public figure raised suspicions and left unanswered questions. The vice president of the state oil pipeline company, Andrei Badalov, fell from the window of his seventeenth-floor home on the outskirts of Moscow. According to the agency TASSThe businessman left a farewell note, and everything points to suicide, although his motives are unknown. This death under mysterious circumstances adds to those of other top Russian executives whose fate remains unclear, such as Ravil Maganov, president of the oil company Lukoil; Vladislav Avayev, former vice president of Gazprombank; and Sergei Petrosenia, director of the main independent gas producer.