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By Shane Croucher
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Roman Starovoyt was found dead in an apparent suicide, Russian authorities said, hours after he was fired by President Vladimir Putin from his role as transport minister.
Russia's Investigative Committee said Starovoyt, 53, was found with a gunshot wound in his private car on Monday. He was in Odintsovo, where he lived, on the outskirts of Moscow. A criminal probe into his death has begun.
Starovoyt was the governor of Russia's Kursk region until May 2024, when he was appointed to the transportation role by Putin.
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But Ukraine's incursion into Kursk fueled scrutiny of Starovoyt's job preparing the border defenses before he left the role, and his deputy was implicated in a corruption scandal related to the border fortifications, The Moscow Times reported.
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Kursk Corruption Case
Alexi Smirnov stepped in to replace Starovoyt as Kursk governor from May to December, coinciding with the surprise Ukrainian incursion, which began in August last year. He resigned over his handling of the incursion.
Smirnov and his first deputy, Alexei Dedov, were arrested in April 2025 by the Russian Interior Ministry on allegations of embezzlement of public money over contracts for the construction of fortifications in Kursk.
There were reports across Russian media, including pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and the newspaper Kommersant, that Starovoyt had been implicated in the case.
The Kremlin's announcement gave no reason for Starovoyt's dismissal. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said if the dismissal was a result of loss of confidence, it would have been mentioned in Putin's decree.
"In the case of Starovoyt, there was no such wording," Peskov said, state-run RIA Novosti reported.
Ukraine War Rocks Russian Transport
Russia's transportation industry has suffered amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, as Western sanctions deprive sectors of key parts, interest rates are sky high, and Ukrainian attacks disrupt the transport network.
Over the weekend, hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airports, and thousands of travelers faced long waits.
Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions because of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Kursk 'Caught up With' Starovoyt
Putin named Andrey Nikitin, Starovoyt's deputy and the former governor of Russia's Novgorod region, as acting transport minister.
Evgeny Minchenko, a political analyst in Russia, called Putin's dismissal of Starovoyt "predictable" in a post on his Telegram channel, adding that what happened in Kursk had "caught up with him."
Footage from the parking lot where Starovoyt's car was found was shared by RIA.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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