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On July 7, news broke that Russian Minister of Transport Roman Starovoit had been found dead in his car, an incident that is officially being treated as a suicide. Starovoit assumed his cabinet post in May 2024 after serving as the governor of the Kursk Region. Investigations into kickbacks connected with the construction of military infrastructure in the region have already led to the arrest of Starovoit’s successor, and the timing of the alleged corrupt payments suggest that the late Transport Minister may have also been a suspect of the probe.
From May to December 2024, the Kursk Region was led by Starovoit’s former deputy, Alexei Smirnov. It was on Smirnov’s watch that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) launched their surprise incursion across the Russian border that August, capturing and holding significant portions of the Kursk Region for several months. On December 5, Smirnov was replaced by former State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein. However, Starovoit remained visible in the region.
On Sept. 16, 2024, with over 800 square kilometers of Kursk territory under Ukrainian control, Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Chechnya’s “Akhmat” special forces, published a video on Telegram alongside Starovoit and Smirnov, calling them “people doing everything to keep Russia whole, great, and powerful.” On camera, Alaudinov thanked Starovoit for the construction of high-quality fortifications on the border with Ukraine:
“I saw how precisely these structures were built. The people underground had everything. Even the Ukrainians who took some of these strongholds were shocked to see how well-equipped they were. You could live underground,” said Alaudinov.
But a month after the video’s release, Russian law enforcement began carrying out searches across the region as part of criminal investigations into fraud, money laundering, and abuse of office related to the construction of the fortifications. At the time, state security forces raided the regional department for capital construction, along with a company called Siemi (ООО «Сиэми»), which had handled the fortification projects. Siemi is controlled by regional legislator Maksim Vasiliev, who also owned other firms with defense construction contracts, including KTK Service LLC, Avtospetstech-46 LLC, Tekhimpeks LLC, and Elektrostroymontazh LLC. Vasiliev denied any wrongdoing and claimed he had personally inspected the completed structures.
In December 2024, Igor Grabin, deputy general director of the Kursk Region Development Corporation, was arrested on charges of abuse of authority. Other individuals named in the case included the corporation’s head Vladimir Lukin, his former deputy Snezhana Martyanova, along with Vladislav Martyanov, Denis Fyodorov, Maksim Vasiliev, Yuri Bessonov, Maksim Voronin, Vladimir Konoplev, and Ivan Utkin.
State investigators alleged that the Kursk Regional Development Corporation received kickbacks in exchange for signing 23 contracts with Vasiliev’s companies worth 3.22 billion rubles (over $41 million) in 2022 and 2023. More than 800 million rubles (over $10 million) allegedly went to Lukin, Martyanova, and Grabin. The fortifications were reportedly not fully completed, while the funds earmarked for their construction were distributed through shell companies.
Several months later, on April 16, 2025, Smirnov and his deputy Alexei Dedov were arrested on charges of embezzling 1 billion rubles ($12.74 million) in connection with the construction of defensive infrastructure on the border with Ukraine. At the time, Smirnov held no official position, having stepped down as governor of Kursk in December 2024. Less than a week after the arrests of Smirnov and Dedov, Maksim Vasiliev was also detained — one day after his legislative mandate had been revoked.
Reports by the business newspaper Kommersant, alongside the pro-Kremlin Telegram channels Shot and 112, published after Starovoit’s death, claimed that Smirnov had testified against him.