Overview
- President Vladimir Putin removed Starovoit after 14 months as Transport Minister in a morning decree on July 7.
- Starovoit’s body was found hours later in his car in Odintsovo with a gunshot wound.
- Russia’s Investigative Committee provisionally concluded that the evidence indicates suicide.
- Deputy Minister Andrei Nikitin was appointed acting Transport Minister pending State Duma confirmation.
- Starovoit’s tenure had been overshadowed by a fraud probe into defense procurement in the Kursk region that led to his successor’s arrest.