INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Transportation Minister Roman Starovoit just over a year after appointing him, according to a decree
governor of the northwestern Novgorod region in February to assume the deputy role.Putin had tapped Starovoit to lead the Transportation
Ministry in May 2024 after he was elected as president for another six-year term
Starovoit previously served as governor of the southwestern Kursk region near the Ukrainian border from 2018 to 2024.His tenure as governor
Since then, law enforcement authorities have made several high-profile arrests, including that of his successor Alexi Smirnov, over alleged
corruption in the construction of border fortifications.While Starovoit has not been directly implicated in the ongoing police
investigations, Russian media reported that the breached border defenses, built during his time as governor, cost nearly 15 billion rubles
candidate for his replacement.
