INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
On Monday, former Transportation Minister Roman Starovoit was found dead in an apparent suicide, just hours after news broke that President
appointed transportation minister, previously served as the governor of the Kursk region from 2018 to May 2024.But who was Roman Starovoit,
and how did he end up in this position?Early lifeRoman Vladimirovich Starovoit was born on Jan
He graduated from the Baltic State Technical University in St
Petersburg in 1995, and then from the North-West Academy of Public Administration in 2008 with a degree in state and municipal
administration.After that, he served as the executive director of the Regional Investment Fund
From 1995 to 2001, he headed the asset management company Promyshleny
Between 2001 and 2005, he was the head of a construction company called Stroyinvest.GovernmentStarovoit entered the government in 2005, when
he took over as head of the investor relations department and subsequently became the first deputy chairman of the St
serve only briefly in that position, as he was appointed governor of the Kursk region in October 2018
He was then elected to the position in 2019 and officially joined the ruling, ruling United Russia party the next year.Prime Minister
Mikhail Mishustin then nominated him for Transportation Minister in May 2024, a position he held until his death.Forbes Russia cited the
several high-profile arrests, including of his successor Alexei Smirnov, over the alleged misuse of public funds.While Starovoit had not
been directly implicated in the ongoing police investigations, later on Monday, the Kommersant business daily cited unnamed sources as
saying that suspects in the embezzlement case, including Smirnov, recently testified against him.Kommersant reported that Starovoit faced an
imminent investigation over being implicated in the embezzlement of at least 1 billion rubles ($12.8 million) allocated for the construction
of defensive structures on the border with Ukraine.Why is his death significant?Political analysts were quick to describe the kind of
