Russian transport minister Roman Starvoït, fired from his office on Monday by President Vladimir Putin, committed suicide, announced Russia’s Investigation Committee a few hours later in a statement.
“The body of the former transport minister of the Russian Federation, a novel Vladimirovitch Starvoït, was found today in his car, presenting a ball injury,” said the investigation committee.
“The main thesis is that of suicide,” also assured the greatest authority in the country’s criminal investigation.
An investigation was opened to “establish” the “circumstances” of the death of the former minister, added this institution in charge of the main investigations in Russia. The exact date of his death has not yet been specified by the authorities.
Left for his duties on Monday
Roman Starvoït, 53, had been appointed Minister of Transportation in May 2024, after being governor of the Koursk region between 2019 and 2024.
Earlier on Monday, Kremlin had published a decree signed by Vladimir Putin announcing that Roman Starvoït was “fired from his functions as a transport minister of the Russian Federation”, without, however, to give explanations about this dismissal.
In the process, Vladimir Putin had designated the former Roman Starvoït assistant, Andreï Nikitine as the new minister.
Possible corruption cases
When asked about this replacement, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, had limited himself to saying during his press point that “it is the decision of the Head of State.” “The decree does not contain the expression ‘loss of confidence,’ he added, sweeping the question of a journalist who asked him if the dismissal of Mr. Starvoït was linked to a misfortune of the minister.
The replacement of Roman Starvoït intervenes when Russian airports are subject to repeated temporal closures due to the attacks of Ukrainian drones, led by kyiv in response to the Russian offensive on a large scale in its territory since 2022.
“First I will take care of the situation at airports,” said Nikitine Minister immediately on Monday, cited by the news agency Ria Novosti.
The Russian media also mentioned a hypothesis that the dismissal of a Starvoït novel is linked to possible cases of corruption in the Koursk region.
It should be noted that the Russian Ministry of Transportation also manages the archive for the construction and renewal of roads in the occupied Ukrainian territories, in a sector where corruption is common.
Source: BFM TV
