Roman Starovoit was found dead in his car just hours after it had been announced that Vladimir Putin had fired him as Russia’s transport minister.
While Russian authorities gave no reason for firing Starovoit, state media has suggested that his dismissal was linked to a corruption investigation.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Kremlin said that Starovoit, 53, had taken his own life and that Putin was “shocked” by his death.
Starovoit is among a number of state officials and prominent businessmen who have died in mysterious circumstances since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Putin’s foes and critics have often met with violent deaths.
Below, the Independent looks at the deaths of major public figures that have prompted speculation in Russia and abroad.
Roman Starovoit
Starovoit's body was found in the Odintsovo district of Moscow that is home to many members of Russia's elite, according to the Investigative Committee, the country's top criminal investigation agency.
The agency said Starovoit's body was found in his car, but Russian media that carried images from the scene later reported that he was found dead in a small park next to a parking lot where he left his Tesla and a pistol presented to him as an official gift was at his side.
Starovoit had served as Russia’s transport minister since May 2024, but prior to this served as the governor of the Kursk region which was attacked by Ukrainian forces in August 2024. Kyiv’s military success in the region has humiliated Russia.
Russian media reported that Starovoit's dismissal and his death could have been linked to an investigation into the embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in Kursk, where he was governor for five years.
Starovoit's successor as governor, Alexei Smirnov, stepped down in December and was arrested on embezzlement charges in April.
The alleged embezzlement was cited as one reason behind the Russian military’s failure to foresee Ukraine’s surprise attack in August 2024.
Starovoit’s dismissal also followed a weekend of travel chaos in Russia as airports were struck by Ukrainian drones.
Some commentators in Russia suggested that Starovoit's associates in higher echelons could have ordered his killing to avoid exposure, the Associated Press reported.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
Yevgeny Prigozhin soared to prominence in Russia as the founder of the Wagner Group mercenary force, whose fighters have played a significant role in the invasion of Ukraine.
Formerly a close confidant of Putin, Prigozhin’s downfall came exactly two months after he launched a brief rebellion against the Russian president using soldiers from Wagner.
Russian state media reported that he died aged 62 on 23 August 2023 in a plane crash. The Embraer Legacy 600 business jet was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg when it crashed and killed all 10 people on board.
While the Kremlin denied any involvement in Prigozhin’s death, western officials later suggested that he may have been killed. The Wall Street Journal later reported in December 2023 that Putin’s oldest ally, Nikolai Patrushev, had ordered Prigohzin’s assassination, citing western intelligence officials.
Andrei Badalov
Oil executive Andrei Badalov, 62, was found dead last Friday after falling from a height from his apartment on Rublevskoye Highway in Moscow.
A source told the state-owned Tass news agency that the “preliminary cause of death is suicide”, adding that an investigation was underway.
Badalov was vice president of Transneft, a state-controlled oil pipeline company based in Moscow.
There have been a string of unexplained deaths of senior executives in Russia’s energy sector since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, including four deaths in 2022 linked to the state energy giant Gazprom, according to the Moscow Times.
Aleksey Avramenko
Aleksey Avramenko, 46, was a Belarusian politician who served as minister of transport and communications from 2019 to 2023. He died suddenly on 4 July 2023, according to state news agency Belta, without a cause of death mentioned.
The former minister, who served in the government of Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko, was placed under international sanctions after he illegally diverted a passenger flight to arrest an opposition journalist Roman Pratasevich in 2021.
The Ryanair flight FR4978 had been due to fly from Greece to Lithuania, but landed in Minsk airport after Belarusian authorities claimed that a bomb threat was on board. The incident provoked outrage in Western countries.
Natalia Larina
Natalia Larina had only been retired for six months from her role as a judge in Moscow’s Tagansky District Court before she was found dead in June last year.
Larina, 50, who had been involved in a number of high-profile political cases, was found dead outside her apartment bock in south east Moscow.
Russian media reported that she had left a note and listed a suspected suicide as a cause.
Larina had worked as a judge for more than 15 years. She was involved in the trial of a Russian Transport Ministry official convicted raping his daughter in 2011, as well as the trial of opposition activist Pyotr Pavlensky, who set fire to the entrance of Russia’s main intelligence agency headquarters. He was convicted of vandalism and fined 500,000 rubles (£4,700).
Vladimir Sviridov
Vladimir Sviridov, 68, was the former lieutenant-general of the 6th Air and Air Defence Forces Army. He was found dead in his home alongside his wife in November 2023.
Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported they had been dead for around a week with “no trace of violent death”.
Instead, they said there had been a malfunction in the heating system following a power outage which led them to get carbon monoxide poisoning. On-site measurements did not reveal any carbon monoxide concentration limits being exceeded.
The military chief had previously criticised Putin for allowing a “third-ranking” air force, and warned that officers were leaving the Army due to poor pay and conditions.
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