Former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was found dead in his car Monday, only hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his post.
Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for Russia’s State Investigative Committee, said the former minister’s body was found in his personal car with a gunshot wound and that the committee was on the scene investigating.
Starovoit’s death “is preliminary being called a suicide,” according to TASS, the state-run news agency.
Starovoit was dismissed from his post Monday morning, and Putin tapped Andrey Kinitin to serve in his stead as acting transport minister.
Starovoyt oversaw the Kursk region for more than half a decade before he was made Transport Minister in May 2024.
The Kremlin confirmed he was fired from the top job before it was revealed that Starovoyt was dead after his girlfriend, Polina Korneeva, 25, allegedly found him dead in an affluent neighborhood outside of Moscow.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed questions over whether Starovoyt had been terminated from his position over a loss of confidence, reported Russian news outlets.
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Isn’t that the normal outcome for people fired by Valdimir?