Former Russian Transport Minister Román Starovait, dismissed on Monday by the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has been found dead on the outskirts of Moscow, as reported by the Russian Instruction Committee, which considers suicide as the main cause of his death.
“The investigation is establishing the circumstances of the death of Román Starovoit,” according to a statement from the institution, published in its Telegram. The note indicates that the official was found with “a gunshot wound in his private vehicle” in the town of Odintsovo, on the outskirts of Moscow. “The main hypothesis is suicide,” according to researchers.
Starovoit, 53 and former governor of the Kursk region, assumed the transport portfolio in May 2024. At the head of the Kursk region, Starovoit was replaced by Alexéi Smirnov, who was arrested last April accused of a crime of corruption and fraud in the construction of defensive lines next to the border with Ukraine.
In August 2024, three months after Starovoit left Kursk to assume his position in the Government, the Armed Forces of Ukraine invaded and occupied part of that region, of which they were expelled only last April.
Hours after the dismissal of Starovoit, Putin appointed as his substitute at the head of the Ministry of Transportation to Andréi Nikitin, formerly Vice Minister of the same portfolio.
The spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, said Monday that Starovoit’s dismissal was not related to the loss of confidence in his figure. “In the decree (of dismissal) it is usually indicated that it is for loss of confidence when it occurs,” said Peskov, who has insisted that this time the official document did not include this clarification.
Russia is facing major transport problems because of the Ukraine War initiated in 2022. In addition to the constant cases of sabotage, fires and explosions in the transport lines, mainly railway, the daily drone attacks have caused a thousands of cancellations and postponements of flights for security reasons. Only this weekend, the Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, registered almost 500 cancellations and 2,000 flight postpone.
