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.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS