Former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovit, who was fired on Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin, seemed dead to the outskirts of Moscow, according to the Russian Education Committee, which considers suicide as the main reason for his death.
“The investigation is to establish the circumstances of the death of Roman Old Roman,” the institution said in its telegram said in a statement of the institution.
The note indicates that the official was found with a “gunshot wound in his private car” in the city of OdoSovo, on the outskirts of Moscow.
“The main hypothesis is suicide,” according to the researchers.
Starvo, 53 years old and the former governor of the Kursk region, accepted the transport portfolio in May 2024.
According to some Russian media, the official could end the life of suicide on the night of July 5 to 6 with his honorary pistol of macrars, which was presented in 2023 as a sign of recognition of his service.
Nevertheless, the popular Telegram Mash channel says that the former Minister of Transport met with his subordinates, then said goodbye and left the house, next to which his body was found without life.
At the head of the Kursk region, Starvoit was replaced by Aleksai Smirnov, who was arrested in April last year, accused of crime of corruption and fraud for the construction of defensive lines near the border with Ukraine.
The Russian channels of the telegram say that Starovoit can be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 20 years for fraud and embezzlement after other politicians, including Smirnov, announced to him.
In August 2024, three months after Starvo left Kursk to take his position in the government, the Armed Forces of Ukraine invaded and occupied part of this region, from which they were expelled only in April last year.
A few hours after the dismissal of Starovoit, Putin appointed him a replacement at the head of the Ministry of Transport Andrei Nikitin, a former vice -minister of the same portfolio.
The press secretary of the Russian presidency Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the dismissal of Starovoit was not related to the loss of confidence in his figure.
“The decree (dismissal) usually indicates that this is a loss of confidence when this will happen,” said Peskov, who insisted that this time the official document does not include this clarification.
