This is the dramatic beginning of a week in Russia.
On Monday morning, President Vladimir Putin fired his transport minister Roman Starovoit.
By the afternoon, Stalova was dead. His body was found in a park on the edge of Moscow and had a gunshot wound to the head. The pistol allegedly next to the body.
Investigators said they assumed the former minister had taken his life.
This morning, in the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets, there was a sense of shock.
“The suicide of the Roman constellation is an almost unique event in Russian history, hours after the president was fired,” the report said.
That’s because you need to go back over thirty years, before the fall of the Soviet Union, so that the government ministers will commit suicide here.
In August 1991, after the failure of the Communist Hardlin people’s coup, Boris Pugo, one of the leaders of the coup, shot himself.
The Kremlin has little talk about Stalova’s death.
“How shocked are you to be found dead just a few hours after being fired by the president?” I asked Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the Kremlin conference call.
Peskov replied, “Ordinary people have to be shocked by this.” “Of course, this shocked us too.
“It depends on the investigation to provide answers to all questions. Although it is ongoing, it can only be speculated. But it is more for the media and political experts. For us, it is not.”
Indeed, the Russian media is full of speculation.
Today, several Russian newspapers will take place in Roman Starovoit’s activities with the Kursk region bordering Ukraine. Before being appointed as Transport Minister in May 2024, Starovoit served as governor of the Kursk region for more than five years.
Under his leadership and with substantial government funding, Governor Starovoit initiated the construction of defensive fortifications along the border. These are not enough to prevent Ukrainian troops from breaking into the Kursk region last year and capturing the territory.
Since then, Starovoit served as Governor Alexei Smirnov and his former agent Alexei Dedov have been arrested and charged with mass fraud related to the construction of the fortifications.
Today’s Business Daily Kommersant advises: “In this case, Mr. Starovoit is likely to have become one of the main defendants.”
Russian authorities have not confirmed this yet.
But if you are afraid of being prosecuted to drive the former minister to take his own life, what is life in Russia today?
“The most striking part of all the re-qualitativeizations that have happened in Russia in recent years is that senior government officials (kill themselves) because he has no other way to exit the system,” Nina Khrushchcheva said.
“He must be worried that if he was to be investigated, he would be sentenced to decades in prison and his family would suffer a great pain. So, there was no way out. I immediately thought of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, a minister of Stanling, who in 1937 (killed himself) (successful), because he thought of the environment in 1937 when he felt that he hadn’t gone out.
Roman Starovoit’s death may make headlines in the paper here. However, this “almost unique event in Russian history” has received minimal coverage on state television.
Perhaps it is because the Kremlin recognizes the power of television to shape public opinion. In Russia, television is more influential than newspapers. Therefore, in terms of television, authorities tend to be more cautious and cautious about messaging.
Monday’s main night news announcement on Russia-1 included a four-minute report on Putin’s appointment of new acting transport minister Andrei Nikitin.
There is no mention at all that the last transport minister has been fired. Still found out that he was dead.
Only forty minutes later, at the end of the news announcement, the host briefly mentioned the death of Roman Starovoit.
News readers put all 18 seconds into use, meaning most Russians may not see Monday’s drama as a major development.
For the political elite, this is another story. For ministers, governors and other Russian officials who are trying to be part of the political system, what happened to Starovoit will serve as a warning.
“Unlike before, when you can get these jobs, get rich, get promoted from a regional level to federal level, it’s obviously not a career path if you want to keep your life,” said Nina Khrushcheva.
“Not only does not have an upward mobility, but even a decrease in liquidity ends with death.”
This reminds people of dangers arising from system fouls.
