A Sacked Russian Transport Minister, A Body In A Moscow Suburb, A Growing List Of Suspicious Deaths

July 08, 2025
By Mike Eckel and Wojtek Grojec


Russian investigators examining the car belonging to former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit. Investigators say his body was found with a gunshot wound.

Hours after being sacked by President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s transport minister, Roman Starovoit was found in his Tesla, parked in a Moscow suburb, dead from a gunshot wound, investigators said.

Suicide was the most likely explanation for Starovoit’s death, officials said.

Russia being Russia, however, untimely deaths are almost always fodder for rampant speculation, with suggestions of foul play.

Two of Starovoit’s deputies, from when he served as governor of the Kursk region, bordering Ukraine, have been implicated in embezzlement of budget funds earmarked for border defenses. Ukrainian troops quickly overran the border in August 2024 when they invaded Kursk, embarrassing the Kremlin.

Still, it is exceedingly rare for topmost Russian government officials to commit suicide, even if they might be ensnared in scandal.

Here's a look at just a few of the untimely, eyebrow-raising deaths of high-level Russian officials-- and executives of energy industry companies -- that have grabbed attention in recent years:

Russia's Deadly Corporate (And Government) Ladder

A growing number of Russian business executives and government officials have died under suspicious circumstances since 2022. Causes include falls from windows and gunshot wounds.

Table with 6 columns and 9 rows. (column headers with buttons are sortable)

	Roman Starovoit	Former transport minister *	Dead of gunshot in a Moscow suburb parking lot	July 7, 2025	53
	Andrey Badalov	Vice president of Transneft, a state-owned oil pipeline company	Fell from window of Moscow apartment	July 4, 2025	62
	Vitaly Robertus	Vice president of Lukoil, Russia's largest private oil company	Found hanged in Moscow offices	March 1, 2024	53
	Vladimir Nekrasov	Chairman of board of directors, Lukoil	Reported heart failure	October 1, 2023	66
	Sergey Protosenya	Former manager at Novatek, Russia's second-largest natural gas producer	Found hanging at his villa in Spain	April 19, 2022	55
	Ravil Maganov	Chairman of board of directors, Lukoil	Fell from a window at a Moscow hospital	January 30, 2022	67
	Leonid Shulman	Head of transport service for Gazprom Invest, a unit of state-owned gas giant Gazprom	Found dead in bathtub of Leningrad region country house	January 30, 2022	60
	Aleksandr Subbotin	Former chief accountant at Novatek, Russia's second-largest natural gas producer	Found dead of reported heart failure in Moscow suburb house	May 8, 2022	43
	Vladimir Makarov	Former major general, Interior Ministry counter-extremism unit	Found dead in Moscow suburb home	February 13, 2023	72

* Unclear if death occurred before or after dismissal.

Table: RFE/RL GraphicsSource: RFE/RL, company statements, investigative statements, media report