Kremlin says it was shocked by ‘tragic’ death of former minister that Putin fired

MOSCOW - The Kremlin said on July 8 that it was shocked by the sudden death of Russia’s former transport minister Roman Starovoit, news of which broke hours after President Vladimir Putin had sacked him.

Mr Starovoit was found dead in his car outside Moscow with a gunshot wound and the principal hypothesis is that he took his own life, state investigators said on July 7.

Asked about Mr Starovoit’s death, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mr Putin had been briefed on the incident and described the news as “tragic and sad”.

Mr Peskov declined to speculate on the cause of Mr Starovoit’s death, citing the ongoing investigation.

“It can’t help but shock normal people. Naturally, it shocked us too,” said Mr Peskov.

“There’s an investigation under way. And it is this investigation that will answer all the questions.”

A presidential decree published on July 7 gave no reason for the dismissal of Mr Starovoit after barely a year in the job, though political analysts suspected it was linked to a corruption probe in the Kursk region, which he once governed.

Reuters could not independently confirm those suggestions, though a transport industry source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said on July 7 that Mr Starovoit’s position had been in question for months due to questions about the same corruption scandal.

That investigation centres on whether 19.4 billion roubles (S$317 million) earmarked in 2022 for fortifying Russia’s border with Ukraine in the Kursk region was properly spent or whether some of that money was embezzled. REUTERS