Russia’s transport minister, who previously served as governor of the Kursk region, was found dead in his car from a gunshot wound, Russian authorities said on Monday, hours after the Kremlin announced he had been relieved of his duties.
Law enforcement authorities said they were investigating the death as a possible suicide.
Roman Starovoyt (53) oversaw the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, for 6½ years before becoming transport minister in May 2024. Three months after his promotion, Kyiv invaded the region and seized a swath of territory that the Ukrainian military held until Russian troops ousted them in April this year.
The months-long Ukrainian occupation of Russian land was the first invasion of Russian territory since the second World War. It was an embarrassment to Russian president Vladimir Putin and set off domestic recriminations that in recent months have gathered steam.
Russian authorities have arrested former officials from the Kursk region and accused them of embezzling funds that Moscow had earmarked to fortify the border with Ukraine during Mr Starovoyt’s tenure as governor.
In April, his successor and longtime deputy, Alexei Smirnov, was arrested and accused of embezzlement as part of the case. Smirnov served as the acting Kursk governor at the time of the Ukrainian invasion.
Svetlana Petrenko, the spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee, a national law-enforcement body, said in a statement that Mr Starovoyt’s body was found in his car in Odintsovo, an affluent area outside Moscow.
Authorities were working to establish the circumstances of the death, Ms Petrenko said, noting that it was suspected he had died by suicide.
The Kremlin posted a decree on Monday morning, signed by President Putin, that said Mr Starovoyt had been relieved of his duties. Mr Putin then met publicly with the minister’s chosen successor, Andrei Nikitin, the former governor of the Novgorod region. The Kremlin has not commented on Mr Starovoyt’s death.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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