Russian politician Roman Starovoit found dead just hours after dismissal as transport minister
Russian politician Roman Starovoit, whom Vladimir Putin dismissed from his post as the country’s transport minister on Monday morning, has been found dead in the Moscow region.
The newspaper Kommersant, citing an informed source, reports that Starovoit was found dead from a gunshot wound in the town of Odintsovo. Andrey Kartapolov, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee, also told journalists that the former minister died by suicide.
According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, Starovoit’s body was found with a gunshot wound in his car in the Moscow region’s Odintsovo district. The agency said in a statement that investigators were “working at the scene to determine the circumstances” and that the leading theory was suicide.
Before he was appointed transport minister, Starovoit served as the governor of Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, from 2019 until 2024.
According to 112, Alexey Smirnov — Starovoit’s former deputy and successor as governor of Kursk — has testified against him. Smirnov is currently under arrest in a criminal case involving the embezzlement of more than one billion rubles from the regional budget during the construction of defensive structures along the border with Ukraine.
According to the Telegram channel Mash, Starovoit was at the Transport Ministry on Monday morning, where he led a meeting before heading home. However, a source close to investigators told Forbes Russia that Starovoit died more than a day earlier — reportedly on Saturday night. Telegram channels Shot and Baza have shared similar reports.
Law enforcement officials told journalists at RBC that a pistol that Starovoit had received as an award from the Russian Interior Ministry in 2023 was found at the scene of his death.