Minister found dead in car with gunshot wounds hours after Putin sacked him
A minister fired by Vladimir Putin has been found dead just hours after he was sacked from his position.
The body of Russian transport minister Roman Starovoit, 53, has been discovered inside his vehicle with fatal gunshot wounds. It's believed he was killed with his own gun, according to reports. There is no official confirmation at the moment, but major channels with links to the Russian security forces reported the death, with preliminary information from these channels suggesting suicide was the cause.
A firearm was found near Starovoit's body at his home in the village of Myakinino, in the Odintsovo district of Moscow region. Reports said the pistol was an award weapon received from the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2023.
The minister was axed by the dictator in a decree today for unspecified reasons. His sacking came amid unprecedented flight chaos in Russia linked to Ukrainian drones, with thousands of services delayed or cancelled. He was also sacked amid unconfirmed rumours of a corruption probe.
Starovoit was the governor of the Kursk region shortly before the Ukrainian Armed Forces took over a swathe of its territory last year.
One theory is that his successor as governor Alexey Smirnov, who was recently detained for embezzlement during the construction of fortifications in the region, testified against Starovoit.
The flight disruption appears to have been triggered by security concerns over buzzing Ukrainian drones which led to a switch-off of Russian mobile signals. There was speculation that Ukraine had deliberately sought to trigger airport chaos as a new strategy hitting back at ceaseless missile and drone strikes by Putin's armed forces.
Starovoit presided over a weekend of disruption but was also rumoured to be facing the corruption probe. A total of 485 flights were cancelled between Saturday and today, with 1,900 services delayed. Some 43,000 ticket refunds have been issued so far, with 94,000 people accommodated in hotels by airlines.
Impatient passengers were marooned in overcrowded terminals, with worst hit airports being major hub Sheremetyevo in Moscow and Pulkovo in St Petersburg, where there were 7,000 stranded flyers this morning.
But multiple regional airports were hit too, including in Siberia. The cost of the mayhem was put at £186 million - and rising.
'Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian airports are aimed at undermining air logistics,' said Telegram channel Kremlin Whisperer.
'Schedule disruptions, delays of hundreds of flights, suspension of operations at five airports - all this is becoming not just a tactical, but a strategic action aimed at shaking the usual rhythm of life and demonstrating the vulnerability of the system.' However, no civilian airport was directly hit in recent days by Ukrainian drones.
Putin was said to have been displeased with technocrat Starovoit for failing to implement a crisis management plan to cope with the fallout from the war, including Western sanctions of plane repairs.
The Transport Minister was replaced by his deputy Andrei Nikitin, who is reported to be close to both powerful defence minister Andrei Belousov and Putin's daughter Katerina Tikhonova, who appears to be growing in sway in Kremlin power circles.
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