Russian transport minister who Putin fired has shot himself: Report

Russia’s sacked transport minister has been found dead in his car outside Moscow with a gunshot wound and the principal hypothesis is that he took his own life, state investigators said on Monday, hours after President Vladimir Putin fired him.

A presidential decree published earlier on Monday gave no reason for the dismissal of Roman Starovoit after barely a year in the job, though political analysts were quick to raise the possibility that he may have been dismissed in connection with an investigation into corruption in the region he once ran.

There were conflicting reports about the timing of Starovoit’s death. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement it was working to establish the precise circumstances.

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Various Russian media cited law enforcement sources as saying a pistol belonging to Starovoit had been found alongside his body in his car.

Putin’s decree gave no reason for the dismissal of Roman Starovoit after barely a year in the job. Starovoit was appointed transport minister in May 2024 after spending almost five years as governor of the Kursk region bordering Ukraine.

The Kremlin said Andrei Nikitin, a former governor of the Novgorod region, had been appointed acting transport minister and it published photographs of him shaking hands with  Putin  in the Kremlin.

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Asked about Starovoit’s sudden departure and Nikitin’s swift appointment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “At present, in the president’s opinion, Andrei Nikitin’s professional qualities and experience will best contribute to ensuring that this agency, which the president described as extremely important, fulfils its tasks and functions.”