Former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was found dead from an apparent suicide on Monday, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin fired him from his job.
No reason was given for Starovoit’s dismissal, but it came after a Ukrainian air assault that may have significantly disrupted the country’s air industry. The Russian Federal Agency for Air Transport said 485 flights were canceled, 88 were diverted, and 1,900 were delayed over the weekend and into Monday. The agency attributed the delays to “external interference.”
Starovoit was found in his car on the outskirts of Moscow, in Odintsovo, with a gunshot wound.
The Investigative Committee of Russia said the circumstances of his death were under investigation but the “main theory is suicide.”
Starovoit had been under scrutiny before he joined the Putin regime, acting as governor of Russia’s Kursk region until May 2024 when he was appointed to the position of transport minister. The former transport minister was blamed for Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region given the security failure of border defenses.
Russian media has reported his dismissal could be linked to an inquiry into the embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in Kursk. The embezzlement has been cited as one of the reasons for the region’s lack of border security.
When the Kremlin was asked whether the dismissal was due to a lack of confidence, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “In the case of Starovoyt, there was no such wording.”
Evgeny Minchenko, a Russia-based political analyst, wrote in a post on Telegram that Putin’s dismissal of Starovoit was “predictable” and that what happened in Kursk had “caught up with him.”
TRUMP SAYS HE MADE NO PROGRESS ‘AT ALL’ WITH PUTIN ON ENDING UKRAINE WAR AFTER CALL
Ukraine and Russia have been intensifying their air operations against each other as ceasefire efforts continue to fail. Last week, Russia launched about 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and almost 1,000 glide bombs at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday.
He has prioritized air defense as a result, even as the U.S. halted a shipment of anti-air missiles to the country. “Air defense is the main thing for protecting life,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Monday.