The reported suicide of Russia’s transport minister hours after he was dismissed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and amid speculation he would be arrested on corruption charges, has shocked the country’s elite.
Several hundred mourners, including ministers and state officials, streamed past the open coffin of former Russian minister of transport Roman Starovoyt on Thursday.
He was found dead in his car on Monday, hours after being fired by Putin, with Russian investigators saying he shot himself.
Photo: Government Pool Photo via AP
There was a palpable unease as mourners clutched bouquets of red roses at his farewell.
Russian media reported Starovoyt was being investigated for corruption and could have been arrested within days.
Many who came to the ceremony refused to speak to reporters.
“It’s a great loss, very unexpected,” said Valentina, a 42-year-old translator whose husband worked with Starovoyt. “He was very active, cheerful and loved life very much. I don’t know how it happened.”
Starovoyt had been governor of Russia’s western Kursk region for five years before being promoted to Moscow, just a few months before Ukrainian troops captured dozens of border settlements in a shock cross-border incursion.
His successor was arrested this spring for embezzling funds intended to beef up the fortifications that Ukraine ended up slicing through with ease — an embarrassing setback for Russia’s military.
“They tried to make him the scapegoat, as the incursion mainly happened, because there weren’t enough soldiers to protect the border, but it’s easier to put the blame on a civilian official,” political commentator Andrey Pertsev said.
The case is one part of a wider crackdown on officials alleged to have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian army amid the Ukraine offensive — a Kremlin campaign that has ripped up previous norms about what is acceptable for Russian officials.
“There used to be rules, where people knew that once you climbed up high enough, they wouldn’t mess with you,” Pertsev said. “You had guarantees, and everyone understood the rules... but they do not work any more.”
In a sign of how out-of-favor Starovoyt had become, Putin has not publicly commented on his death.
Asked if he would attend the memorial ceremony in Moscow, Putin’s spokesman told reporters: “The president has a different work schedule today.”
While Putin has criticized and vowed to stamp out corruption throughout his 25 years in power, his rule has been characterized by systemic graft, critics said.
The smattering of high-profile arrests has more typically been used to target opponents, or come about as the result of infighting among those lower down Russia’s chain of power.
However, the offensive on Ukraine has changed that.
“Something within the system has started to work completely differently,” analyst Tatiana Stanovaya wrote for Carnegie Politika, an online outlet that publishes commentary on Russian and Eurasian politics.
“Any action or inaction that, in the eyes of the authorities, increases the state’s vulnerability to hostile actions by the enemy must be punished mercilessly and uncompromisingly,” Stanovaya said.
In such a climate, it was inevitable that heads would have to roll over the Kursk failings.
Nina Khrushcheva, a professor at The New School, a university in New York City, said Starovoyt’s apparent suicide showed the Russian elite was “scared.”
The current climate is such that “it is impossible to leave the top brass,” Khrushcheva said.
“This is something we have not really seen since 1953,” she added, referring to the execution of a close ally by Joseph Stalin.
To the Kremlin, the Ukraine campaign is a “holy war” that has rewritten the rules of loyalty and service, she said.
“During a holy war, you don’t steal... you tighten your belts and work 24 hours a day to make the weapons you need,” she added.
That atmosphere has created a “sense of hopelessness” among officials in Moscow that is unlikely to fade, Stanovaya said.
“Going forward, the system will be ready to sacrifice increasingly prominent figures,” she warned.
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