Roman Starovoy, who served as Russia’s Minister of Transport, was reportedly found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound mere hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his position. This information comes from state-run media, which cited the national Investigative Committee. In a related development, another senior official from the Transport Ministry died shortly thereafter under unexplained circumstances.
Starovoy, 53, was discovered in his car in Odintsovo, west of Moscow, as confirmed by a statement from the Investigative Committee relayed by TASS news agency. The Committee noted, “The circumstances of the incident are being established. The main hypothesis is suicide.”
Forbes Russia reported that Starovoy’s death likely occurred between Saturday and Sunday, citing an anonymous source close to the investigation, although the timing of the reported death was inconsistent with official media accounts.
Putin’s decision to remove Starovoy was made public through a decree released by the Kremlin. While no specific reasons were disclosed, his dismissal came in the wake of significant disruptions to air traffic in Russia due to ongoing drone attacks from Ukraine over the weekend, which resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations and passengers being stranded.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that at least 120 drones were intercepted across ten regions of the country during the attacks on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Concurrently, Ukrainian officials reported that Russian drone strikes had resulted in the deaths of at least 11 civilians and injuries to over 80, including seven children. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that in the previous week alone, Russia had launched approximately 1,270 drones, alongside 39 missile attacks and nearly 1,000 glide bombs against Ukraine.
Starovoy was appointed as the Minister of Transport in 2024 after serving as the governor of the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine.
In an eerie twist, another Transport Ministry official, Andrei Korneichuk, 42, died suddenly during a meeting shortly after Starovoy’s death. Korneichuk, who served as the deputy head of the Federal Road Agency’s Land Fund Department, reportedly “stood up sharply during a meeting and fell dead,” according to SHOT, a news outlet with military connections. First responders could not revive him. Preliminary investigations suggested his death was due to cardiac arrest, corroborated by reports from independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
These two fatalities add to a series of recent high-profile deaths among powerful figures in Russia, often under mysterious or sudden circumstances, with previous incidents involving apparent falls from windows. Just days prior, Andrei Badalov, 62, the vice president of Transneft, was found dead outside a residence in western Moscow, having apparently left a farewell message to his wife.
Ivan Kashchenko contributed to this report.