Russian transport minister found dead after being sacked by Putin

The Russian transport minister recently sacked by President Vladimir Putin, Roman Starovoit, has been found dead with a gunshot wound in a car, the central investigative committee in Moscow reported on Monday.

“The circumstances of the incident are currently being investigated. The main theory is suicide,” said the spokeswoman for the investigative authority, Svetlana Petrenko.

Russian media had also reported that the 53-year-old politician allegedly shot himself at his residence in Odintsovo in the Moscow region.

The decree published in Moscow earlier on Monday did not give any reasons why Starovoit, the former governor of the western Russian region of Kursk, who was appointed as transport minister in May last year, was leaving his post. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also did not provide a reason.

Starovoit’s deputy, Andrey Nikitin, has been appointed acting transport minister.

Starovoit’s successor as governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, has been detained for alleged fraud.

Kursk is where Ukrainian troops captured dozens of villages in August last year, in a temporary but embarrassing blow for the Russian army.

Smirnov became governor of Kursk in May 2024 but was forced to resign in December after Ukrainian troops invaded.

The case against Smirnov centres on the fact that funds for the construction of fortifications on the border with Ukraine were allegedly not spent appropriately.

These fortifications were built from 2022, shortly after Putin ordered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As governor, Starovoit had said these facilities were completed. No investigations into Starovoit are known to date.

Russian commentators also cited the chaos at Russian airports as a possible reason for his dismissal. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled in the middle of the holiday season due to frequent Ukrainian drone attacks.