In a dramatic way this week started in Russia.

On Monday morning, President Vladimir Putin abandoned Transport Minister Roman Starovit. By the afternoon, the former Transport Minister was found dead in a park in the Moscow district, with a head injury. A gun was found placed next to him according to the BBC.

According to the investigations that followed, Starovit committed suicide.

In the Russian tabloids released today, the suspicion of strong shock is pervasive. The newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” wrote: “Roman Starovit’s suicide a few hours after the president ordered to be removed constitutes an almost unique circumstance in Russia’s history“

It is a fact that one needs to look back on history at least thirty years before the Soviet Union even falls to identify an example of a government official who ended up suicide.

In August 1991, after the failure of the coup by the hard -core communists, Boris Pugo, one of the main mothers of the coup and the Soviet Minister of the Interior, committed suicide.

The Kremlin for the death of the former Minister of Transport

The Kremlin commented laconically the fact of the death of the exalted minister.

Steve Rosenberg, a BBC Russian -based editor, claims to ask Dmitry Peskov himself the following question: “How shocked when you were informed that a federal minister was found dead for just a few hours after the president was dismissed; “

“Like all normal people, we can only be shocked by the fact“, Peskov replied. “Of course, he shocked us all“

“It is left to the competent investigation to assign answers to all questions. As long as the research is open, only hypothetical scenarios can be done. However, these scenarios relate only to the media and political commentators, not us“

The Russian guy is raging

The Russian press is really angry by speculating what’s behind the death of the former Minister of Transport.

Today, several Russian newspapers have linked what happened to Roman Starovit with events in the Kursk area, which borders Ukraine. Prior to his appointment as Minister of Transport in May 2024, Starovit was ruled by Kursk for more than five years.

Under his leadership – and with large amounts of government money – Governor Starovit started the construction of defense fortifications along the border. These were not strong enough to prevent Ukrainian troops from penetrating and occupying territories in the Kursk area last year.

Since then, Starovait’s successor as governor, Alexei Smirnov, and former deputy Alexei Dentov have been arrested and accused of large -scale fraud in relation to fortifications.

“Mr Starovait may well have become one of the main defendants in this case“, Said today’s edition of the financial newspaper Kommersant.

The Russian authorities have not confirmed it.

But if the fear of persecution was the one who led a former minister to commit suicide, what does this tell us about today’s Russia?

“The most dramatic part of this event, with all the revolutionary that has been happening in Russia in recent years, is that a high -ranking government official [αυτοκτονεί] Because it has no other way to get out of the system, “says Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at New School, New York.

“He should be afraid that he would have been imposed on him for dozens of years in prison, if he were to be investigated, and that his family would suffer terribly. So there is no way out. I immediately thought about Sergko Orzonikinz, one of Stalin’s ministers, who [αυτοκτόνησε] In 1937 because he felt there was no way out. When you start thinking in 1937 in today’s environment, this gives you great concern“

Deafening guy, silent TV

THE Roman’s death It may have been a front page in the newspapers of Russia. But this “almost unique event in Russian history” received little coverage from state television.

Monday’s central evening newsletter in Russia-1 included a four-minute report on the appointment of a new Transport Minister, Andrei Nikitin.

There was no mention of the fact that the previous Minister of Transport had been fired or found dead.

Only forty minutes later, towards the end of the news release, the presenter briefly referred to Roman Starovit’s death.

The presenter of the newsletter dedicated to it only 18 seconds, which means that most Russians will probably not perceive Monday’s dramatic events as an important development.

For political elite, things are different. For ministers, rulers and other Russian officials who sought to become part of the political system, what happened to Starovit will act as a warning.

“Unlike earlier, one could take these positions, get rich, promoted from regional to federal level, today, this is clear that it cannot be a career course if he wants to stay alive“, Says Nina Khrushcheva.

“There is only no possibility of upward mobility, but even the probability of downward mobility ends up in death“

It is a reminder of the dangers arising from any failure to the system.