Moscow (Reuters)-Kremlin said on Tuesday that he was shocked by the sudden death of former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, whose news was released hours after President Vladimir Putin fired him.
Starovoit was found dead in his car on the outskirts of Moscow with a bullet injury, and the main hypothesis is that he took his own life, state investigators said on Monday.
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Asked about the death of Starovoit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had been informed about the incident and described the news as “tragic and sad.”
Peskov refused to speculate about the cause of Starovoit’s death, citing the investigation ongoing.
“This can not fail to shock normal people. Naturally, it also shocked us,” said Peskov. “There is an investigation ongoing. And it is this investigation that will answer all the questions.”
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A presidential decree published on Monday gave no reason for Starovoit’s resignation after just one year in office, although political analysts suspect that she is linked to an investigation of corruption in the Kursk region, which he has already ruled.
Reuters could not independently confirm these suggestions, but a transport source, which did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said on Monday that Starovoit’s position was in question for months due to questions about the same corruption scandal.
This investigation focuses on whether 19.4 billion rubles (US $ 246 million) intended in 2022 to fortify the Russian border with Ukraine in the Kursk region were spent properly or part of that money has been diverted.
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(Report by Dmitry Antonov)
