MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin fired his transport minister on Monday, in an unexpected move that comes at a time of significant challenges for the transport sector as the war in Ukraine drags on for a fourth year.
Russia’s aviation sector is short of spare parts and Russian Railways, the country’s largest employer, is grappling with soaring interest costs as high rates - needed to curb higher inflation exacerbated by the war - take their toll.
Putin’s decree gave no reason for the dismissal of Roman Starovoit after barely a year in the job. Starovoit was appointed transport minister in May 2024 after spending almost five years as governor of the Kursk region bordering Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Andrei Nikitin, a former governor of the Novgorod region, had been appointed acting transport minister and it published photographs of him shaking hands with Putin in the Kremlin.
Asked about Starovoit’s sudden departure and Nikitin’s swift appointment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “At present, in the president’s opinion, Andrei Nikitin’s professional qualities and experience will best contribute to ensuring that this agency, which the president described as extremely important, fulfils its tasks and functions.”
Two transport industry sources, who asked not to be identified, said plans to replace Starovoit with Nikitin had been in the works since before last month’s International Economic Forum in St Petersburg.
At his meeting with Putin, Nikitin spoke about working on the huge task of digitizing Russia’s transport industry in an effort to reduce cargo bottlenecks and ensure smoother cross-border flows of goods.
A few months after Starovoit left his role as governor of the Kursk Region, Ukrainian troops spilled over the border into Kursk as Kyiv launched the biggest foreign incursion into Russian territory since World War Two. Ukrainian forces were pushed out of Kursk earlier this year.
Some regional officials in Kursk were subsequently arrested on abuse of office charges. In April this year, Starovoit’s successor as governor, Alexei Smirnov, was charged with embezzling money earmarked for defense purposes.
A third transport industry source said Starovoit’s position had been in question for months, linked not to transport issues specifically but to the corruption scandals in Kursk.
Peskov, pressed further by reporters if the ministerial change suggested Putin had lost trust in Starovoit over Kursk, said “a loss of trust is mentioned if there is a loss of trust”.
“There is no such wording in the (Kremlin) decree.”