- Roman Starovoit, a Putin insider, was found dead In a car in a suburb of Moscow. The Russian authorities say it is probably a suicide. Since 2022 there have been dozens of “suicide” among the political and business elite that Putin circle.
Roman Starovoit, Russia’s recently repressed transport minister, was found dead From a gunshot wound in his car in a suburb in Moscow on Monday, a few hours after President Vladimir Putin had torrected him abruptly. The Russian authorities have initiated an investigation with Suicide quoted as a leading theory.
The 53 -year -old Starovoit was removed from his post from Russia’s President Putin after barely a year. Before he was appointed Minister of Transport in May 2024, he was a governor of the Kursk region, a border area that was of crucial importance for Russia’s logistics and military operations. His discharge came in the middle of the transport of transport crids, including widespread flight cancellations Combined with Ukrainian drone attacks and a large ammonia leak in a port of Leningrad.
The Kremlin has not given the reason for its distance, but reports indicate this criminal investigation in connection with alleged household accidents during his governor.
“Sudden Russian death syndrome”
Since 2022, Dozens of prominent Russians– Many in the areas of energy, finance and infrastructure sectors, often at the level of the director or chairman- have died in a way that heated speculations about internal power struggles, corruption). Starovoit is that Quarter of Putin’s ministers die during this time.
Starovoit’s sudden death is not only remarkable for his timing – miner hours after his shooting – but also because of his echoes of a troubling pattern among the Russian elite. In recent years, a number of top-class civil servants, oligarchs and managing directors have died with narrow Kremlin bonds under mysterious or violent circumstances. These incidents, which are often referred to as “sudden Russian death syndrome”, include obvious suicide, falls from windows and unexplained accidents.
The episode underlines the precarity of the elite status in Putin’s Russia – and the unpredictable consequences for those who lose the President’s trust.
Fortune generative AI used for this story to help with a first draft. An editor checked the accuracy of the information before publication.
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