Russia's transport minister was 'murdered' hours after he was sacked by Putin

Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was sacked by Russian President Vladimir Putin

(Credits: AP)

Fears have been raised in Moscow about a Russian minister who was found dead with a ‘self-inflicted’ gunshot,hours after being sacked by Vladimir Putin.

Roman Starovoit,53,was sacked after barely a year as transport minister without an official explanation on Monday.

Russia’s Investigative Committee,the top criminal investigation agency,said the body of Starovoit was found with a gunshot wound in his car parked in Odintsovo,a neighbourhood just west of the capital where many members of Russia’s elite live.

He’s the most recent Russian politician close to Putin to die in mysterious circumstances.

Sergei Markov,director of Russia’s Institute of Political Studies,shocked the country when he went on the record and suggested Starovoit was murdered.

‘The Russian elite was shocked by the suicide of Roman Starovoit,the former Minister of Transport,just a few hours after Putin removed him,’ he said.

‘But it seems to me that those who eliminated him – that is,those against whom he could have testified after his arrest – are trying to hide his real murder by using the suicide version.’

Former Russian Minister of Transport Roman Starovoit arrives at a meeting with President Putin(Pictures: EPA)

He died shortly before he was intended to give statements in criminal cases as a ‘key figure’,having been implicated in the alleged abuse of state funds intended for wartime border protection in Kursk.

Versions of his death from official sources first reported his body was found at home,before claiming he was in a car.

Local media ultimately confirmed his body was found in bushes,yards from his car in Romashkovo,Moscow.

A gun previously presented to him as an official gift was reportedly found next to his body.

After his death,one account reported: ‘Security forces conducted searches and collections of expensive watches,large sums of cash in dollars and euros were seized.’

A criminal probe was launched into the death,and investigators saw suicide as the most likely cause,according to committee’s spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko,who did not say when Starovoit died.

Starovoit was last seen in public on Sunday morning when an official video from the ministry’s situation room featured him receiving reports from officials.

Another high-profile mystery death in Russia,as oil pipeline giant Transneft’s vice-president Andrey Badalov,62,was found dead after falling from his elite penthouse.(Credits: social media/east2west news)

The death came days after an oil tycoon who had links to the KGB became the latest high-profile figure to mysteriously fall from a high building in Russia.

Transneft vice-president Andrey Badalov,is said to have fallen from the penthouse of the luxury high rise where in lived in Moscow.

‘Badalov’s body was found under the windows of an [apartment building] on Rublevskoye Highway,’ a source told TASS.

Transneft is Russia’s state oil pipeline monopoly which is run by former KGB spy,Nikolai Tokarev,74,  who served with Vladimir Putin,72,  in Germany in the Cold War.