Roman Starowoit
Russian Minister of Transport only dies shortly after his release
07.07.2025 – 4:34 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Vladimir Putin released his Transport Minister Roman Starowoit on Monday. Shortly afterwards the politician was found dead.
A few hours after his dismissal by head of state Vladimir Putin, the Russian Minister of Transport Roman Starowoit was found dead in his place of residence Odinzowo in the Moscow area. The authorities assume suicide.
Accordingly, Starowoit was found in his car with a gunshot wound. This was announced by the central investigation committee in Moscow. “The circumstances of the incident are currently being investigated. The main version is suicide,” said the spokeswoman for the investigative authority, Swetlana Petrenko. There was initially no official confirmation for reports according to which the minister is said to have committed suicide at the weekend.
There are no reasons in the decree published in Moscow, why the former governor of the West Russian area Kursk, which was only promoted in May last year, had to clear his post. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow also did not comment on the reasons. Andrej Nikitin, who was previously Starowoit’s deputy, was appointed Managing Minister of Transport.
It was unclear why Starowoit might have committed suicide. The 53 -year -old Starowoit, politician of the Kremlin party united Russia, could be blamed from his time from his time as governor of the Kursk area, in which Ukrainian troops had taken dozens of towns in August, it is said.
Starowoit’s successor in the Governor Office, Alexej Smirnow, had previously been arrested for alleged fraud. Smirnow became governor of Kursk in May 2024. After entering Ukrainian troops into the area, he had to step down in December 2024. The procedure against Smirnow is about the fact that funds for the construction of fastening systems on the border to Ukraine are not said to have been issued accordingly.
From 2022, these fastening lines were built against Ukraine shortly after the start of Putin. As governor, Starowoit had already reported the completion of these systems upwards. So far, nothing has been known about investigations against him.
As a possible other reason, Russian commentators also cited chaos on the Russian airports. Because of the frequent Ukrainian drone attacks, hundreds of flights fail in the middle of the holidays, only on Sunday was this the case.
Passengers are sometimes at thousands on the airports because no starts and landings are possible. The Russian newspaper “Kommersant” reported high financial losses in the aviation industry on Monday.
