As scattered details of the apparent suicide of Russia’s former transport minister Roman Starovoit trickled in via state media on Monday, one stood out. Near his body, the Kommersant newspaper reported,

The death of a Russian Cabinet minister in a field near his posh home in a Moscow suburb has fueled wild speculation about how he died and what it means.

Roman V. Starovoyt, the transport minister, had governed the Kursk region before Ukrainian forces occupied part of it in 2024.