Ousted Putin minister dies in gunshot ‘suicide', adding to list of mystery deaths
Browder and other critics of the Kremlin responded with disbelief in March when Russian news agencies reported that another former Putin ally, Buvaisar Saitiev, was found dead after falling from a window.
'Windows are very dangerous in Russia,' Browder quipped on social media at the time.
Adding to the doubts about the circumstances leading up to Starovoit's death, former Russian defence minister Andrei Kartapolov – who now leads a defense committee in the Russian parliament – told news outlet RTVI that Starovoit had killed himself 'quite a while ago'.
Some Russian media alleged the former minister may have taken his life before the publication of Putin's decree firing him.
Starovoit was last seen in public on Sunday morning, Moscow time, when an official video from the ministry's situation room featured him receiving reports from officials.
An official order releasing Starovoit from his post was published on the Kremlin's website on Monday morning, without giving a reason for his removal.
Russian media have reported that Starovoit's dismissal could have been linked to an investigation into the embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in the Kursk region, where he served as governor before becoming transportation minister.
The alleged corruption has been cited as one of the reasons Russia failed to hold the region in the face of a Ukrainian attack in August 2024, in a humiliating setback.
While Russian news agencies often report the deaths of former officials and ministers as suicide, critics of the Kremlin attribute the deaths to the security services acting on orders.
Ivan Stupak, a Ukrainian military analyst and former security service officer, told the Kyiv Independent on the weekend that the oil executive Badalov's death was probably an example of the security agencies at work.
'They can pressure a person in one way or another. It's a well-known tactic – either you kill yourself, and your family is left in peace with what they have, or they start arrests, imprisonments, and leave everyone destitute,' he told the publication.
Russian authorities have also stepped up the prosecution of corruption cases.
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On Monday, Khalil Arslanov, a former deputy chief of the military's general staff, was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Another former deputy in the military, Timur Ivanov, was convicted on charges of embezzlement and money laundering and handed a 13-year prison sentence.
Both were close to former defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who was removed from his post in 2024 after overseeing the war against Ukraine.
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Russia's transport minister allegedly commited suicide on Monday, just hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his post. Roman Starovoit was abruptly fired Monday after just a year in his key position. He was then found dead inside his car in Odintsovo, a neighborhood just west of Moscow where Russia's elite reside. Starovoit was found with a gun that was an official gift from the Kremlin, officials said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on Starovoit's dismissal, with no reason for his firing listed on the Kremlin's website on Monday. Officials also did not give a reason for his reported suicide. Starovoit was tapped as Russia's new transport minister in May 2024 after serving as the governor of the Kursk region, an area at the heart of an embezzlement case that allegedly aided Ukraine's surprise counter-invasion last summer. The Kremlin has been investigating allegations that officials in Kursk embezzled state funds meant for fortifying the region around the time Ukraine was planning its major assault on Russian soil. The Kursk invasion was the first time in Russia's history that Moscow lost land to an invader since World War II, leaving Putin humiliated and forcing the Russian army to scramble for months to reclaim the land. Starovoit's successor in Kursk, Alexi Smirnov, was allegedly tied to the incident and arrested on embezzlement charges in April, with Russian media claiming that charges were pending for the transport minister. While the Kremlin never made statements on whether Starovoit was under investigation, a transport industry source told Reuters that the minister's position had come into question over the Kursk scandal. Starovoit's dismissal also comes after a weekend of travel chaos plague Russian airports, with more than 160 flights cancelled and another 240 delayed due to Ukraine's drone attacks. Russian commentators speaking about Starovoit's dismissal, however, said that the disruptions have become common due to the frequency of Ukraine's attacks, claiming the weekend chaos likely played no role in his firing. Following Starvoit's dismissal — but before his death was reported — his deputy transport minister, Andrei Nikitin, was tapped as his replacement. '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, fulfills its tasks and functions,' Peskov said in a presser that took place before Starvoit's death was reported. With Post wires Originally published as Russian minister Roman Starovoit kills himself with Kremlin-gifted gun hours after being dismissed by Putin
