The China Mail - Minister's death spooks Russian elite amid corruption clampdown

USD -
AED 3.67304
AFN 69.215543
ALL 83.64863
AMD 383.909883
ANG 1.789623
AOA 917.000372
ARS 1263.445982
AUD 1.521255
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.70093
BAM 1.672289
BBD 2.018666
BDT 121.569684
BGN 1.67423
BHD 0.376957
BIF 2978.87622
BMD 1
BND 1.279312
BOB 6.923294
BRL 5.570944
BSD 0.999799
BTN 85.707568
BWP 13.34804
BYN 3.271813
BYR 19600
BZD 2.008234
CAD 1.36976
CDF 2885.999768
CHF 0.796535
CLF 0.024816
CLP 952.339534
CNY 7.175303
CNH 7.17134
COP 4007.48
CRC 504.217488
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 94.28106
CZK 21.109201
DJF 178.03657
DKK 6.38059
DOP 60.203414
DZD 129.769576
EGP 49.483696
ERN 15
ETB 137.741058
EUR 0.85518
FJD 2.243699
FKP 0.73704
GBP 0.740435
GEL 2.71039
GGP 0.73704
GHS 10.397339
GIP 0.73704
GMD 71.50058
GNF 8674.387684
GTQ 7.679975
GYD 209.168601
HKD 7.849965
HNL 26.153129
HRK 6.4445
HTG 131.223093
HUF 342.079941
IDR 16219.2
ILS 3.33113
IMP 0.73704
INR 85.811697
IQD 1309.665807
IRR 42112.501635
ISK 121.779868
JEP 0.73704
JMD 159.875506
JOD 0.708996
JPY 147.407499
KES 129.170098
KGS 87.449903
KHR 4008.396428
KMF 421.490641
KPW 900.033937
KRW 1375.684984
KWD 0.30578
KYD 0.833145
KZT 522.370002
LAK 21546.262174
LBP 89579.489197
LKR 300.657954
LRD 200.454023
LSL 17.827769
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 5.401292
MAD 9.005032
MDL 16.926385
MGA 4429.12965
MKD 52.612451
MMK 2098.907476
MNT 3587.604945
MOP 8.083827
MRU 39.770507
MUR 45.460124
MVR 15.399252
MWK 1733.594976
MXN 18.69107
MYR 4.252502
MZN 63.960375
NAD 17.827769
NGN 1531.51951
NIO 36.7924
NOK 10.12302
NPR 137.132279
NZD 1.665295
OMR 0.384499
PAB 0.999803
PEN 3.54517
PGK 4.133267
PHP 56.486499
PKR 284.308721
PLN 3.646663
PYG 7748.378629
QAR 3.644782
RON 4.345902
RSD 100.187057
RUB 78.004986
RWF 1444.664378
SAR 3.750433
SBD 8.326487
SCR 14.110655
SDG 600.505536
SEK 9.545495
SGD 1.280265
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.493685
SLL 20969.503664
SOS 571.338181
SRD 37.207499
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.747921
SYP 13001.953619
SZL 17.833583
THB 32.389968
TJS 9.662771
TMT 3.51
TND 2.925094
TOP 2.342101
TRY 40.173953
TTD 6.792443
TWD 29.206499
TZS 2600.0001
UAH 41.770789
UGX 3583.475484
UYU 40.426323
UZS 12631.515944
VES 113.437985
VND 26114.5
VUV 119.767188
WST 2.749534
XAF 560.865123
XAG 0.026187
XAU 0.000297
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.695413
XOF 560.869918
XPF 101.972151
YER 241.849871
ZAR 17.93045
ZMK 9001.221651
ZMW 23.14434
ZWL 321.999592
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Minister's death spooks Russian elite amid corruption clampdown
Minister's death spooks Russian elite amid corruption clampdown / Photo: © AFP

Minister's death spooks Russian elite amid corruption clampdown

The reported suicide of Russia's transport minister hours after he was dismissed by President Vladimir Putin, sparking speculation he would be arrested on corruption charges, has shaken the country's elite.

Text size:

Roman Starovoyt was buried in Saint Petersburg on Friday, with his family weeping at his open coffin before it was lowered into the ground.

The 53-year-old was found dead in his car on Monday in an elite Moscow suburb -- hours after Putin issued a decree to fire him, with no explanation.

Russian investigators say he shot himself.

Media reports said he was being investigated for corruption and could have been arrested within days.

While government departments sent flowers and some ministers attended a memorial ceremony in Moscow a day earlier, there was unease over the fate of Starovoyt, who had climbed the ranks of Russia's bureaucracy to a seat in the cabinet.

Many who came to the ceremony in Moscow refused to speak to AFP.

"It's a great loss. Very unexpected," said Valentina, a 42-year-old translator whose husband worked with Starovoyt.

"He was very active, cheerful and loved life very much. I don't know how it happened."

- 'Scapegoat' -

Starovoyt had been governor of Russia's western Kursk region before being promoted to Moscow, just a few months before Ukrainian troops captured dozens of border settlements in a surprise cross-border incursion.

His successor was arrested in the spring for embezzling funds intended to beef up the fortifications that Ukraine ended up slicing through with ease.

"They tried to make him the scapegoat... It's easier to put the blame on a civilian official," political commentator Andrey Pertsev told AFP.

The case is one part of a wider crackdown on officials alleged to have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian army during the Ukraine offensive.

The crackdown is a Kremlin campaign that has ripped up previous norms about what is acceptable for Russian officials.

"There used to be rules, where people knew that once you climbed up high enough, they wouldn't mess with you," Pertsev said.

"But they do not work any more."

In a sign of how out of favour Starovoyt had become, Putin has not publicly commented on his death.

Asked if Putin would attend the ceremony in Moscow, his spokesman told reporters: "The president has a different work schedule today."

At the funeral in Saint Petersburg on Friday, two regional governors were the highest-ranking officials to show face.

- 'Holy war' -

While Putin has criticised corruption and vowed to stamp it out throughout his 25 years in power, his rule has been characterised by systemic graft, critics say.

The smattering of high-profile arrests has more typically been used to target opponents or come about as the result of infighting among those lower down Russia's chain of power.

But the military offensive against Ukraine has changed that.

"Something within the system has started to work completely differently," analyst Tatiana Stanovaya wrote after Starovoyt's death.

"Any action or inaction that, in the eyes of the authorities, increases the state's vulnerability to hostile actions by the enemy must be punished mercilessly and uncompromisingly," Stanovaya said.

In such a climate, it was inevitable that heads would have to roll over the Kursk failings.

Nina Khrushcheva, a professor at The New School, a university in New York City, said Starovoyt's apparent suicide showed the Russian elite was "scared".

The current climate is such that "it is impossible to leave the top brass", said Khrushcheva, who is also the great-granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

"This is something we have not really seen since 1953," she told AFP, referring to Joseph Stalin's execution of a close ally.

To the Kremlin, the Ukraine military campaign is a "holy war" that has rewritten the rules of loyalty and service.

"During a holy war, you don't steal... You tighten your belts and work 24 hours a day to make the weapons you need."

That atmosphere, said Stanovaya, has created a "sense of hopelessness" among officials in Moscow that is unlikely to fade.

"Going forward, the system will be ready to sacrifice increasingly prominent figures," she warned.

A.Sun--ThChM