Former Russian Transport Minister Starovoit commits suicide. Other official dead
Russia has confirmed the suicide of former Transport Minister Roman Starovoit. He was involved in a fraud investigation
2' min read
2' min read
Former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was found dead with a gunshot wound in his car in Odintsovo, a suburb west of Moscow. This was confirmed by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which considers the suicide hypothesis the most likely. "All the elements gathered so far indicate that it was a voluntary act," said the committee's spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, quoted by the state-run Tass news agency.
Starovoit, 51, was removed just today by President Vladimir Putin, less than a year after his appointment as Transport Minister in May 2024. Before holding the government post, he had led the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine for almost six years, one of the areas involved in the fighting and military operations that started after the Russian invasion in 2022.
In recent months, his name had emerged in a sensitive fraud investigation related to public tenders for the construction of defence fortifications in the Kursk region. According to a report by Kommersant and relayed by the Telegram channel '112', several defendants in the investigation had provided accusatory testimony against Starovoit, including the former deputy governor and his successor at the head of the region, Alexei Smirnov. The latter is currently in custody on charges of embezzling public funds in excess of one billion roubles (approximately EUR 10 million).
The body of the former minister was found in his car, parked near his home. According to sources quoted by Meduza and the RIA Novosti news agency, a firearm was found next to the body.
The affair casts new shadows on the administration of federal resources allocated to the border regions and underlines the growing internal pressure on the Russian political system, already tested by the economic and military difficulties of the conflict with Kiev. The investigation continues, but for the investigators the prevailing track remains that of suicide linked to personal and judicial motives.
