Politician Roman Starovoit, 53, was found dead in his Tesla with a gunshot wound to the head hours before Putin had sacked him – Russian officials declared his death a ‘suicide’
Suspicions have been voiced in Moscow that sacked transport minister Roman Starovoit was murdered.
The wealthy politician, 53, was found in bushes near his parked Tesla with a bullet wound to the head. Russian law enforcement immediately announced that “suicide” was the main version of his death even as DNA samples were being take from his car and the place where his body was found.
Vladimir Putin fired Starovoit – previously seen as a staunch loyalist – hours before his body was discovered. He was axed amid unconfirmed rumours he was implicated in a major corruption scandal but also amid three days of air traffic chaos in Russia linked to Ukrainian drones.
Putin gave no reason for his dismissal, later denying he had lost trust in him. But Sergei Markov, director of Russia’s Institute of Political Studies, sensationally went on the record to suggest Starovoit had been murdered.
“The Russian elite was shocked by the suicide of Roman Starovoit, the former Minister of Transport, just a few hours after Putin removed him,” he said. “But it seems to me that those who eliminated him – that is, those against whom he could have testified after his arrest – are trying to hide his real murder by using the suicide version.”
One Telegram channel alleged he died shortly before he was due to give statements in criminal cases in which he was a “key figure”. He had been implicated in the alleged abuse of state funds earmarked for wartime border protection in Kursk region, where he was previously governor.
Independent news outlet Agentsvo highlighted striking “inconsistencies” in accounts of Starovoit’s death, which was earmarked from the start as suicide. Versions from officials sources were “constantly changing”, with initial reports saying his body had been found at home.
This changed to the corpse being in his Tesla Model X P100D, an account published by the Russian Investigative Committee, which is in charge of the probe into his death. In fact this was wrong and media accounts established that the body was found in bushes a few yards from his car near the village of Romashkovo in the Odintsovo district, Moscow region.
The minister’s tearful girlfriend and assistant Polina Korneeva, 25, a medical graduate, was brought to the scene by law enforcement to identify the corpse before being driven away in his official Aurus limousine. There were also wildly different accounts of when he had died.
Some 15 minutes after the first report of his death, the head of the Russian parliament’s defence committee Col-Gen Andrei Kartapolov confirmed the death, and suggested he had died “quite a long time ago” – namely at the weekend – at home.
Sources in the investigation told both Forbes and RBC that he died between Saturday and Sunday. Yet other accounts insist Starovoit was in his office on Monday morning and left only after hearing Putin had fired him, a move he evidently expected.
Footage shows him at the ministry on Sunday in the crisis room, taking charge of the government’s response to the air traffic chaos engulfing Russia. On Monday, after being fired, he reportedly ordered his staff to ready his official Aurus to leave the ministry – yet was later found close to his personal Tesla.
Intriguingly, CCTV cameras reportedly do not show him approaching the scene at Malevich Park where he died. The moment of death – purportedly with a pistol he was awarded by the Russian Interior Ministry – is not visible, say reports.
Reports today suggest he had a property portfolio worth around £9.4 million. “After his death, security forces conducted searches [and] collections of expensive watches, large sums of cash in dollars and euros were seized,” said one account.
Meanwhile, a picture has emerged of Transport Ministry senior official Andrey Korneichuk, 42, who “fell down dead” at his office on Monday as news of Roman Starovoit’s sacking and death emerged. He is believed to have suffered a heart attack.
Meanwhile, state media in Russia devoted minimal time to Starovoit’s death despite his prominence as a politician. Priority was given to reporting details of his successor Andrei Nikitin, formerly deputy to Starovoit. There has been a marked lack of official condolences over his death.