Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt has reportedly taken his own life, Russian media claimed on Monday afternoon.
The announcement comes just hours after Starovoyt was fired by President Vladimir Putin.
The Reuters news agency reports that the Russian Investigative Committee has reportedly found Starovoyt's body in his own car, allegedly with a gunshot wound.
The independent Russian online newspaper Meduza, for its part, claims that Starovoyt was found dead in his home in the Moscow region on Monday morning.
Staroojt was appointed minister in May 2024. Before that, he was governor of the Kursk region in southwestern Russia, near the border with Ukraine.
The circumstances surrounding the death remain unclear, and it is not known why the minister was fired from his position earlier in the day.
The Kremlin has announced that Andrei Nikitin is replacing Starovoyt as acting Minister of Transport.
"I hope you will use all your energy, knowledge, skills and organizational abilities to address the critical challenges facing this sector," Vladimir Putin told Nikitin in a video posted on Telegram.
Nikitin has been Deputy Minister of Transport since February this year, and was previously governor of the Novgorod region in northwestern Russia.
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