Russian minister fired by Putin found dead

The Russia investigative committee says the former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovit was found dead, apparently with a self -inflicted firearm wound.

He was fired earlier on Monday by President Vladimir Putin.

No reason was given to the dismissal of the Old Town and Deputy Minister of Transport Andrei Nikitin was declared his substitute shortly thereafter.

The investigating committee said it was working to establish the circumstances of the incident.

Starovit was appointed Minister of Transport in May 2024.

Before becoming Transport Minister Stavit, he had been the governor of the Kursk region for almost nine years, until May 2024.

The area was partially seized by Ukrainian troops in August 2024 in a surprising offensive. Moscow only managed to expel the Ukrainian forces, although in late June Kiev said it still holds a small area of ​​territory within Russia.

The heir to Starovit, Alexi Smirnov, was only briefly. He was arrested in April and was later charged with appropriations that were allocated to the construction of fortifications on the border with Ukraine.

According to the Russian exit, Kommersant, Starovoit was about to be introduced as a defendant in the same case.

It is unclear when Starovoit died.

The head of the State Defense Committee of Duma, Andrei Kartapolov, told the Russian exit RTVI that his death had come “long time ago”.

Earlier on Monday, before the death of Starovit was announced, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was pressed by reporters whether the dismissal means that Putin had lost confidence in Starovit because of the events in Kursk.

“Loss of confidence is mentioned if there is a loss of confidence. Such a wording was not used (in the Kremlin Decree),” Peskov replied.