Russia’s transportation minister was found dead Monday, hours after being dismissed by President Vladimir Putin, in what officials said was an apparent suicide.
The dismissal came after a weekend of travel chaos, when airports grounded hundreds of flights due to the threat of drone attacks from Kyiv.
Roman Starovoit, 53, served as Russia’s transportation minister since May 2024, until he was fired in a presidential decree Monday morning that gave no reason for his dismissal.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, the top criminal investigation agency, said Starovoit’s body was found with a gunshot wound in his car parked in Odintsovo, a Moscow suburb. A gun previously presented to him as an official gift was found next to his body.
A criminal probe was launched into the death, and investigators saw suicide as the most likely cause, according to the committee’s spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko, who did not say when Starovoit died.
Putin named Starovoit’s deputy, Andrey Nikitin, as acting transport minister. Nikitkin was the governor of Russia’s Novgorod region until February.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on Starovoit’s dismissal.
Russian media have reported that Starovoit’s dismissal could have been linked to an investigation into the embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in the Kursk region, where he served as governor before being appointed transportation minister.
The alleged embezzlement has been cited as one of the reasons for deficiencies in Russia’s defensive lines that failed to stem a surprise Ukrainian incursion in the region launched in August 2024. In the stunning attack, Ukraine’s battle-hardened mechanized units quickly overwhelmed lightly armed Russian border guards and inexperienced army conscripts. Hundreds were taken prisoner.
The incursion was a humiliating blow to the Kremlin — the first time the country’s territory has been occupied by an invader since World War II.
The Russian military had announced that its troops had fully reclaimed the border territory in April — nearly nine months after losing chunks of the region.
Starovoit’s successor as Kursk governor, Alexei Smirnov, stepped down in December and was arrested on embezzlement charges in April. Some Russian media have alleged that Starovoit also could have faced charges as part of the investigation.
His dismissal also followed a weekend of travel chaos, as Russian airports were forced to ground hundreds of flights due to Ukrainian drone attacks. Most commentators said, however, that the air traffic disruptions have become customary during frequent Ukrainian drone raids and were unlikely to have triggered his dismissal.
An official order releasing Starovoit from his post was published on the Kremlin’s website Monday morning without giving a reason for his dismissal.
Shortly before the news of Starovoit’s death broke, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to expand on the reasons behind his sacking, though he did say that the move was “not linked to a loss of trust.” The spokesman also praised his replacement, Nikitin.