CNN
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Roman Starvoight’s former Transport Minister Roman Starvoid died of suicide on Monday just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin fired him from his job, officials said.
Roman Starvoight’s former Transport Minister Roman Starvoid died of suicide on Monday just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin fired him from his job, officials said.
Starvoite was fired by Putin on Monday morning. The order announced his dismissal was published on the official Kremlin website where his deputy Andrei Nikitin was appointed as representative minister.
Looking for the reasons behind Starvoite’s firing from reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied this was due to “lack of trust,” but he gave no reason to replace it.
The Russian commission on investigation said in a statement that Starvoid’s body was found in a car in Odyntsovo on the outskirts of Moscow. He was found with a gunshot wound, the committee said. The circumstances of his death were being investigated, but he said, “The main theory is suicide.”
Before he became a pastor in May 2024, Starvoid was governor of the Kursk region of southern Russia. He left the post before the surprising invasion of Ukraine, but he was partially blamed for the failure of security in the Russian region.
The firing came amidst the chaos of a few days of air travel in Russia. According to the Russian Federation Air Transport Agency, flights 485 have been cancelled, flights 88 have been decoupled, and 1,900 have been delayed on weekends and Mondays.
The agency said the cancellations were “external interference” without providing details. However, the Russian Ministry of Defense said more than 400 Ukraine’s long-range strikes were intercepted during the same period.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
