Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was found dead in an apparent suicide just hours after being abruptly dismissed by President Putin on July 7, 2025. He was discovered in a park near his Tesla outside Moscow’s Odintsovo district, with a self‑registered pistol—reportedly a Kremlin gift—placed beside him.

Speculation is mounting over a potential link between Starovoit’s death and a high-stakes corruption inquiry tied to his previous post as Governor of Kursk. He reportedly oversaw 19.4 billion roubles ($246 million) allocated in 2022 to strengthen the Kursk border with Ukraine—efforts allegedly compromised by a Ukrainian incursion in August 2024 . His successor, Alexei Smirnov, was arrested in April and is believed to have implicated Starovoit in the scandal.