Sacked Russian transport minister commits suicide near Moscow — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Russia's sacked Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt has committed suicide in his car in Odintsovo, near Moscow, the Russian Investigative Committee confirmed on Monday.
Earlier on Monday, Vladimir Putin had dismissed Starovoyt and appointed his deputy Andrey Nikitin as acting transport minister according to a decree on the Kremlin website.
While the exact time of his death remains unconfirmed, a source told Russian state-affiliated daily RBC that Starovoyt's body had been found as early as Saturday — two days before the Kremlin announced his dismissal. This report contradicts the official Investigative Committee's announcement that says his body was found on Monday. Telegram channel SHOT claimed that Starovoyt had killed himself with a gun he received as an award from the Interior Ministry in 2023.
VCHK-OGPU, a channel with ties to Russian security services, said that Starovoyt, who had served as governor of Russia's western Kursk region from 2019 until 2024, was facing criminal charges for embezzlement of approximately 15 billion rubles (€162 million) on contracts for the construction of fortifications along the border with Ukraine.
Telegram channel 112 said that another former governor of the Kursk region, Alexey Smirnov, who was arrested in April in connection with the same embezzlement case, had made statements implicating Starovoyt.
Starovoyt had served as the minister of transport for a little over a year. His sacking came at a time of chaos in Russian aviation due to the war with Ukraine, with huge disruption over the weekend of 5–6 July paralysing operations at Moscow's Sheremetyevo, St. Petersburg's Pulkovo, and Nizhny Novgorod's Strigino airports.
State-affiliated business daily Vedomosti wrote that the reshuffle had been in the pipeline for months, and Nikitin had resigned as governor of the Novgorod region, a position he held from February 2017 to February 2025, to move to the ministry.
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Balkan Insight
an hour ago
- Balkan Insight
"Slovakia needs to be built from scratch"
Zuzana Kovačič Hanzelová and Michal Vašečka during a panel at the Freedom Games in Łódź in 2024. Photo: Aureliusz M. Pędziwol AURELIUSZ M. PĘDZIWOL: Did it surprise you that Slovakia reinstated Robert Fico, whom it had rejected twice before, to the government? MICHAL VAŠEČKA: It was predictable that after three years of chaos and incompetent management of the country during the pandemic by the then Prime Minister Igor Matovič, his party would not win the 2023 elections. What did surprise me, however, was that Robert Fico, declaring himself a social democrat, took the path of extremism and collaboration with neo-fascists after losing the 2020 elections, crossing with his Smer (Direction) party all the red lines that democratic politicians are not allowed to cross. It is perhaps not without significance that Fico was a member of the Communist Party until 1989. Fico and his political friends mobilized the people and radicalized them using disinformation, scaremongering and the stigmatization of the opposition. It has turned out that for many of them this has become their main competence, just what they do best. And it is people like this who are obstructing the functioning of the state today. The state is not working now. A lot of mistakes were also made by the coalition that governed before. This is true. Admittedly, the Matovič and Heger cabinets were in power from 2020 under the conditions of the pandemic and war in Ukraine, but above all they were the most chaotic Slovak governments since 1989. It was all this chaos and all the irrational decisions taken during those three years that won Fico so many supporters. So what is it like for Slovakia? It voted for Mečiar in the early 1990s, but was finally able to turn away from him in 1998. Four times it elected Fico, but twice it overthrew him. What do sociological studies say about this? They say precisely that this narrative can vary. Once it is the message of Mečiar or Fico, with all the attributes of that. Other times it is the civic and pro-western narrative of an elite that has managed to preserve democracy in spite of the fact that the greater part of Slovak public opinion is anti-American, anti-western, pro-Russian and authoritarian. And it was this second Slovakia that elected Zuzana Čaputová to the presidential office… And before that Andrej Kiska. There are a few thousand people in Slovakia who can be called elites, in the normative sense. These people have managed for 35 years not to allow the country to be completely hijacked and dragged somewhere far to the East. Membership of the European Union and NATO undoubtedly makes this difficult. The price when it comes to this is high. This state is not functioning well. In a sense, however, it has been hijacked and has broken with the policy set out during the Velvet Revolution and by Prime Minister Dzurinda from 1998 to 2006. He pushed through all the important reforms and brought the country into NATO and the Union. As a result, today the biggest challenge is no longer the dilemma of whether Slovakia will be a liberal democracy or merely a procedural one, but the threat that instead of functioning, even if with difficulties, it will only struggle to survive. Or it will function, but as an authoritarian state. This is not just a Slovakian challenge. Agreed. But when you look, for example, at a country's economy, at its infrastructure, Poland, for example, is developing all the time. Sometimes faster, other times slower, but nevertheless. And this is true regardless of whether Tusk or Kaczyński is in power. Slovakia, on the other hand, which used to be richer than Poland, is today going through a deep regression. So, we have two problems, political and economic, and Fico is neither prepared nor able to do anything about one or the other within the democratic system. And the third problem is the attitude towards Ukraine? Yes. Slovakia is more pro-Putin, pro-Russian and, above all, much more prone to conspiracy theories than other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Michal Vašečka in Bratislava in 2021. Photo: Aureliusz M. Pędziwol Even more so than Bulgaria. At least that is what the GLOBSEC TRENDS polls show. Russian propaganda was remarkably effective in Slovakia for many years. It has succeeded in confusing a large part of Slovak society. Followers of conspiracy theories are already a majority in Slovakia. Of course, there are populations like them in all countries, but the scale is different. So what should the Slovak opposition, in which a liberal party is the strongest, do? It is interesting, by the way, that a big part of the Slovak electorate votes for the populists while another, also not a small part, votes for the liberals. Progressive Slovakia, which is a liberal party, already has 24 per cent support according to some polls. This is really a lot, given that liberalism does not have much of a tradition in Slovakia. And the other liberal party, SaS, or Freedom and Solidarity? This one has about five per cent. In total, however, it is almost 30 per cent. What does this mean? That Progressive Slovakia is now waiting for the Fico government to make mistakes. Is that enough? It is enough to win the elections, but it may not be enough to be able to form a government. Progressive Slovakia wants to show that Fico does not know how to govern, which is true. He always governed after someone who consolidated the finances and the state. When he came in, the table was lavishly set. And he gave it all away. That was the case when he first came in 2006, after eight years of Dzurinda's rule, which was a time of a great economic boom. After four years, the right wing regained power, but only for two years. Did it manage to get Slovakia back on its feet again? No, but when Fico returned in 2012, the country was sufficiently consolidated again. And the first and second time he took power, the weather was sunny and pleasant. But now it is bad, very bad. And his budget is falling apart. Everything is falling apart for him, the whole country. Progressive Slovakia can therefore count on success. The problem, however, is whether the democratic parties have a chance of winning a majority in parliament. They have been getting around 40 per cent in the polls for a long time. Optimists say that Fico does not have a significant majority in parliament after all. The thing is, however, that the three parties that could have supported him did not get in. Had they got in, his government could theoretically even have a constitutional majority. Which parties are these? The far-right Republic had almost five per cent. The pro-Orban Hungarian coalition was also very close to five per cent. And finally, there is the populist Sme rodina (We Are Family), which got two and a half per cent. So, Fico has the potential to form a government after the next election too, against the possibility that a democratic party like Progressive Slovakia might win it. And could Mečiar and Fico be followed by another tribune who will again draw crowds? Such a risk exists. We don't know his name, we don't know what his party will be, but it will certainly be anti-European and authoritarian. Because Slovaks want a strong-arm government? Exactly. The result of the 2023 elections was no exception, and this was not the only reason that the Matovič government became a disaster for Slovakia. The point is that such a strong-handed policy is wanted by a large proportion of Slovaks. Maybe even a majority. Yes, Slovaks want a leader. And maybe even a saviour. And their attitude to Russia's war against Ukraine? Does it coincide with what Fico preaches? He has a problem, because before the elections he kept saying that he was against the war in Ukraine and at the same time also against the Ukrainian government. Fico is trying to play all sides and be a friend of everyone: Moscow, Brussels, Washington and Berlin. He also wants to continue speaking in front of his voters, most of whom are openly anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian. 'We want to be a bridge, because Slovakia is neither in the East nor in the West'? Exactly. It's just that such a strategy is good for a time of sunny weather, when nothing is happening and for us no values count except one: to survive as best we can. But now there is a war and whoever says he is friends with everyone is not really anyone's friend. Nobody considers him an honest partner. Slovakia today is a country that nobody talks to. This time, the policy towards all four corners of the world that Fico is trying to pursue is no longer working out for him. Probably because, in the end, he turned out to be a pro-Russian, pro-Putin politician. And pro-Trump. Slovakia lost two partners from the Visegrad Group, but gained one. An anti-EU and anti-NATO coalition was born in the EU and NATO: Orbán and Fico. What might this result in? There are differences, however. Orbán is playing this game openly. With the AfD in Germany, with Marine Le Pen in France, with Georgia Meloni in Italy. And he even built a think tank in Washington to influence the Republican Party. At the summer school in Romania, which he visits every year and always fires off something strong there, he said this time something to the effect that Europe is over and the future of the world is in Asia. That is why we Hungarians will cooperate with Asia, because that is where our ancestors came from. This is not Fico's position. Foreign policy has never interested him, he doesn't get into any games. He just wants to govern. And it has to be said that he is succeeding. Some people thought Brussels would be unhappy… I think it is? Maybe it is, but the effects are not visible. Fico is behaving in a way that is unacceptable from Brussels's position, but there are no consequences. The money from the European funds continues to flow. Barbora Krempaská, Łukasz Grzesiczak, Zora Jaurová, Zuzana Kovačič Hanzelová and Michal Vašečka at the 2024 Freedom Games in Łódź. Photo: Aureliusz M. Pędziwol So Europe should figure out how to deal with people like Orbán and Fico? Yes, because it hasn't dealt with Orbán for a dozen years now. Or with Fico for a year. And soon they will be joined by Andrej Babiš. And soon there may be both Andrej Babiš in the Czech Republic and Herbert Kickl in Austria. I understand that no one is allowed to be relegated from the Union, these are the rules of this club. But if someone in this club does not abide by the accepted norms, it is absolutely necessary to apply sanctions against him. Because otherwise he will continue to do so. Orbán and Fico will continue to act the way they do. Does the Slovak opposition have any ideas to stop Fico, especially in the context of Ukraine? Do Slovak experts have any? Michal Vašečka, for example? Progressive Slovakia is waiting for Fico's mistakes to show that he does not know how to govern. In the meantime, it is necessary to act more radically. Go back to the beginnings. For 32 years after the creation of an independent Slovakia, we can see that it has not been a very successful project. Slovakia was created without the consent of its citizens, without a referendum, and Mečiar has created oligarchs who still rule the country, just as oligarchs rule Russia. Something has to be done about this, just waiting for mistakes is not enough. The way out I see is to build Slovakia from scratch, to build a new ethos of the state. In France they have the Fifth Republic, in Poland there is the Third Republic. The Slovaks would also have a third. Is anyone already working on such a project? There are some ideas from intellectuals, but not enough. Slovakia needs structural changes above all in the sphere of ideas and values, and the political and institutional changes that follow from them. The Second Slovak Republic was established without the consent of its citizens. Its foundations include manipulation, lies, disregard for the people, dishonesty, lack of trust. Civil society has already let us know three times what it thinks about this. Actually, four times, because in November 1989 people united under the banner of 'Societies against Violence', in 1998 they spoke out against Mečiar's manipulations, in 2018 they demonstrated 'for a decent Slovakia', and this year they are demanding respect for the agreements made with our allies that guarantee our pro-western orientation. In fact, it can be said that the people of this country themselves have already laid the ideological foundations for the Slovakia of the future. Now a political force has yet to be born that will be able to transform these ideas into a new state and institutions and give the country a chance to truly succeed. Michal Vašečka has worked for years on ethnic issues and the study of populism and extremism. He studied at Masaryk University in Brno and the New School University in New York. Since 2017, he has been the director of the Bratislava Policy Institute, and since 2012 he has represented Slovakia at the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He is chairman of the editorial board of Denník N , one of the leading daily newspapers in Slovakia. Aureliusz M. Pędziwol is a journalist with the Polish section of Deutsche Welle . New Eastern Europe is a reader supported publication. Please support us and help us reach our goal of $10,000! We are nearly there. Donate by clicking on the button below. democracy, democratic backslide, institutions, Oligarchy, Robert Fico, Slovakia
Novaya Gazeta Europe
2 hours ago
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
Skipping out. Putin's decision not to travel to this month's BRICS summit in Brazil was driven by more than fear of arrest — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Brazil's decision to host the 17th annual meeting of the BRICS forum in Rio de Janeiro earlier this month, just eight months after the grouping's last meeting in the Russian city of Kazan, appeared to backfire when neither Chinese President Xi Jinping nor Russian leader Vladimir Putin attended the event in person. While Xi's absence — his first since 2012 — was officially attributed to a 'scheduling conflict', it was widely believed that the guest of honour status being accorded to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the real reason the Chinese president chose to stay away. By contrast, the International Criminal Court's indictment of Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine almost certainly played a role in his decision not to attend the event in person, despite Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's assurances that Brasilia would not act on the arrest warrant, despite Brazil's legal obligation to do so. Putin's absence was notable as he usually relishes any opportunity to thumb his nose at the 'collective West' and to lay bare its failure to totally isolate Russia from the international community, and yet he clearly felt that travelling to Brazil was too risky at this time. Though the flight from Moscow to Rio de Janeiro would have required him to transit the airspace of multiple ICC member states, arguably the real reason for Putin's reluctance to make the journey was the prospect of Ukrainian foul play, following a spate of successful attacks and targeted assassinations by Ukrainian intelligence agencies. Though Moscow sees the Trump administration's episodic halting of military aid to Ukraine and its frustration at what it perceives as the freeloading of its NATO allies as tactical wins, the lack of a coherent Western policy on the war has led Kyiv increasingly to take matters into its own hands, as multiple high-profile assassinations of senior Russian military figures in recent months have demonstrated. Aside from fearing for his own life or a future behind bars, though, Putin also appears reluctant to confront the harsh truth that BRICS itself has become a failed geopolitical experiment despite its recent expansion, which saw the group's five original members — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — joined by Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) at the opening ceremony of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, alongside representatives of the organisation's nine other member states, 6 July 2025. Photo: EPA / ANDRE COELHO The expansion of the group has meant that its already significant intra-member disputes have become even more pronounced. Chief among them is the deeply strained Sino-Indian relationship, with the two countries' long-running border dispute in the Himalayas showing no sign of resolution, not to mention tensions over the safe haven India has granted to the separatist Central Tibetan Administration, or China's cosy ties with Pakistan, whose claim to Kashmir has long been a thorn in New Delhi's side. In the past, Putin has used BRICS summits as a platform to play the peacemaker between the two Asian giants in an attempt to breathe new life into the so-called Primakov Doctrine — a nexus of global influence theorised by former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov in the 1990s that was to be made up of Russia, India and China as a counterweight to US power in the post-Cold War era. This time around, Putin may have accepted that bridging the ideological divide between Beijing and New Delhi was a lost cause given the Modi government's silent endorsement of the Dalai Lama's succession plans, coupled with Pakistan deploying Chinese-made Chengdu J-10 fighter jets in its most recent standoff with India. India is also second-guessing the rationale behind throwing the Russians a lifeline in their hour of need, and by doing so, subjecting itself to diplomatic isolation. China's 'no limits' alliance with the Kremlin notwithstanding, when push comes to shove, the Chinese Communist Party has shown its readiness to abandon its increasingly toxic partner. The fact that up to 98% of Chinese banks now decline all transactions with Russia and have been actively offloading Russian assets since coming under pressure to do so from the US Treasury Department last summer is a case in point. India is also second-guessing the rationale behind throwing the Russians a lifeline in their hour of need, and by doing so, subjecting itself to diplomatic isolation. As well as Moscow's tepid response to the Pahalgam massacre in April, its double dealings with Islamabad have enraged New Delhi. It's worth recalling that Russia has also endorsed Pakistan's inclusion in BRICS and has ramped up energy exports as well as weapons supplies to a country it has deemed its 'natural ally' over the past few years. Scepticism over Moscow's reliability as an ally is not limited to China and India, however, but extends to other members of the grouping as well. The most obvious example is Iran, which in return for arming and equipping Russia with advanced Shahed drones, spare aircraft parts and engineering know-how vital for the continued prosecution of its war in Ukraine, was effectively hung out to dry by the Kremlin during the recent Israeli and US attacks on its cities and nuclear installations. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the final day of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 7 July 2025. Photo: EPA / ANTONIO LACERDA The Kremlin's inaction when its ally was attacked demonstrated that the comprehensive strategic partnership signed with such fanfare by both countries earlier this year is hardly worth the paper it was written on. Meanwhile, the blatant victimisation of Central Asian guest workers by the Russian authorities since last year's terror attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall has not gone unnoticed by countries in the Islamic world. Though Putin had his reasons for not wanting to rub shoulders with some of his fellow BRICS leaders in Rio last weekend, preferring instead to address them remotely, he nevertheless grossly underestimated the optics of not being present at the annual meeting of what is essentially his own vanity project. Already suffering a legitimacy crisis and struggling to make any real headway on its stated aim of replacing the dollar as the default global trading currency, the BRICS grouping would appear to be facing a bleak future if the absence of its two most powerful leaders is anything to go by. Saahil Menon is a Dubai-based freelance journalist. Views expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the position of Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Novaya Gazeta Europe
2 hours ago
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
Russian court sentences writer Boris Akunin in absentia to 14 years in prison — Novaya Gazeta Europe
A Moscow court sentenced exiled writer Boris Akunin in absentia to 14 years in prison on Monday, after he was found guilty of 'aiding and justifying terrorism' and violating the law on 'foreign agents', independent news outlet Mediazona has reported. Akunin, whose real name is Grigory Chkhartishvili, is a Russian-Georgian writer famous for his Erast Fandorin novels that have been published in dozens of languages around the world. The charge of aiding terrorism relates to a conversation between Akunin and well-known Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, in which the writer encouraged Russian servicemen to switch sides and fight for Ukraine, and called a Ukrainian attack on the Crimean Bridge a 'clear and direct way' to bring the realities of war home to 'stupid people'. The charge of justifying terrorism related to an online post where Akunin said he was for 'revolution, as there is no other way to get rid of a dictatorship', while the third and final charge concerned 'at least 33' Telegram posts to which he had failed to add a notification that the material was by a 'foreign agent', as required by Russian law. Prior to the sentence being handed down on Monday, Akunin wrote that he had taken no part in the trial. 'I don't recognise their court. I have not authorised any lawyer to represent me … and have not been part of this circus in any way.' After the announcement of his sentence, he joked with readers that he would next post in 2043, factoring in the four years subsequent to his release where he would be banned from administering internet websites. Rosfinmonitoring, the Russian financial watchdog, added Akunin, who now lives in London, having left Russia in protest at the annexation of Crimea, to its list of 'terrorists and extremists' in December 2023. The Russian Justice Ministry declared him a 'foreign agent' the following month.
