Roman Starovoit, 53, was dismissed as Russia’s minister of transport at 9:00 a.m. on July 7th under a presidential decree that cited no reason. Roughly eight hours later, police in Odintsovo—an upscale suburb west of Moscow—found him inside a parked Mercedes with a single gunshot wound to the chest and a Grand Power pistol, registered to him in 2023, on the passenger seat. The Investigative Committee opened a case for “incitement to suicide,” stating that self-inflicted death remains the working version but that forensic work is continuing.