Russian minister found dead hours after being dismissed

Russian's transport minister was found dead from a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, investigators said Monday — news that broke hours after the Kremlin announced he had been dismissed by President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin did not give a reason for the firing of Roman Starovoit, who served as transport minister since May 2024, and it was unclear when exactly he died and whether it was related to an investigation into alleged corruption, as some Russian media suggested.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, the top criminal investigation agency, said the body of Starovoit, 53, was found with a gunshot wound in his car parked in Odintsovo, a neighborhood just west of the capital where many members of Russia's elite live. A gun previously presented to him as an official gift was reportedly found next to his body.

A criminal probe was launched into the death, and investigators saw suicide as the most likely cause, according to committee's spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko, who did not say when Starovoit died.

Law enforcement agents were seen carrying Starovoit's body from the site Monday evening.

Andrei Kartapolov, a former deputy defense minister who heads a defense committee in the lower house of parliament, told news outlet RTVI that Starovoit killed himself “quite a while ago,” and some Russian media alleged that he may have taken his life before the publication of Putin's decree firing him. Starovoit was last seen in public Sunday morning, when an official video from the ministry's situation room featured him receiving reports from officials.

Speculation swirls over reasons for Starovoit's dismissal

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 embezzlement has been cited as one of the reasons for deficiencies in Russia's defensive lines that failed to stem a surprise Ukrainian incursion in the region launched in August 2024.

The incursion was a humiliating blow to the Kremlin — the first time the country’s territory was occupied by an invader since World War II.

The Russian military had announced its troops had fully reclaimed the border territory in April — nearly nine months after losing chunks of the region.