Ex-Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt died by suicide hours after being dismissed from his post by Putin

Russia's former Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt died by suicide on Monday, July 7, 2025, just hours after being dismissed from his post by President Vladimir Putin. “Today, in the Odintsovo district [of Moscow]... Roman Vladimirovich Starovoit was found in his car with a gunshot wound,” a spokesperson from Russia’s Investigative Committee was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency. The spokesperson said that police investigators “are working at the scene to determine” the cause of death, adding that preliminary findings point to suicide. Investigators are treating suicide as the primary theory for his death, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

The presidential decree announcing Starovoyt's dismissal, published on the Kremlin's website, did not specify a reason for his removal. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that the dismissal was due to a "loss of trust," stating that such wording was absent from the decree. Reports from Russian business newspaper Vedomosti, citing anonymous government sources, suggested the decision to replace Starovoyt had been made "several months ago."

Starovoyt, who was 53, had been appointed Transport Minister in May 2024, following Putin's re-election, serving for



just over a year. Prior to this, he had been the governor of the southwestern Kursk region from 2018 to 2024. His tenure as governor came under scrutiny after a Ukrainian military incursion into Kursk in August 2024, which reportedly exposed deficiencies in the region's border fortifications. 

While Starovoyt was not formally charged, his successor as governor, Alexei Smirnov, and former deputy Alexei Dedov, were arrested in April for allegedly embezzling funds earmarked for defence purposes. Kommersant newspaper reported that Smirnov and other suspects had recently testified against Starovoyt. Political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko described Starovoyt's dismissal as "predictable," linking it to the "Kursk region situation."

Starovoyt has been succeeded by Deputy Transportation Minister Andrei Nikitin, who will serve as acting transportation minister. Putin later met with Nikitin, urging him to focus on the pressing challenges facing the transport sector. Nikitin had joined the ministry as deputy in February, after resigning as governor of the Novgorod region. Two transport industry sources also told Reuters that plans for Nikitin to replace Starovoyt had been in motion since before last month's International Economic Forum in St Petersburg.