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Rabat — Roman Starovoit, Russia’s former transport minister, died by suicide hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his position on Monday, according to Russian investigators.
The Russian Investigative Committee found Starovoit’s body in his car with a gunshot wound.
Officials called suicide the main theory behind his death but opened an investigation to determine the exact circumstances. Authorities have not released the precise time of death.
Putin fired the 53-year-old minister earlier Monday without explanation. The Kremlin decree simply announced that Starovoit was “dismissed from his position as Transport Minister of the Russian Federation.”
Putin immediately appointed Andrei Nikitin, Starovoit’s former deputy, as the new minister.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to explain the sudden dismissal during a press briefing following the incident. He noted that the decree did not include the phrase “loss of confidence,” which typically signals official disgrace.
Starovoit had served as transport minister since May 2024 after governing the Kursk region from 2019 to 2024.
His dismissal came as Russian airports face repeated temporary closures due to Ukrainian drone attacks, launched in response to Russia’’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022.
Russian media have suggested that Starovoit’s dismissal may have been linked to potential corruption cases in the Kursk region, as the Transport Ministry also oversees construction and road renovation projects in occupied Ukrainian territories, where corruption commonly occurs.
The new minister, Nikitin, acknowledged the airport situation as his immediate priority. “I will first deal with the situation at the airports,” he told Russian news agency RIA Novosti. Putin reportedly met with Nikitin at the Kremlin and urged him to apply his “energy, knowledge, skills and organizational talents” to solve the most important tasks in the transport sector.
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