It’s not from Ukrainian drones, Chechen terrorists, or aggressive drivers. It’s not even from the unseasonably hot July weather.

Nope . . . it’s another rash of “suicides” and “heart attacks” befalling some of Putin’s trusted minions, both military and civilian — the most recent being Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, 53, found dead on Monday, July 7th, of a gunshot wound.

The Russian Investigative Committee said his body had been found in his parked car in the elite Odintsovo neighborhood just west of Moscow proper. A gun belonging to him was found next to his body, and officials have said that, while an investigation will be launched, his death initially appears to have been a suicide.

Just hours before the news of his death broke, the Kremlin had announced that Starovoit had been dismissed from his position by President Vladimir Putin. However, no time of death has been revealed, and it is unclear which came first: the firing from his job, or the firing of the gun.

It has also been hinted by the media that his death may have been related to an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption involving embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in the Kursk region — an area bordering Ukraine that has been partially occupied by Ukrainian forces — where Starovoit served as Governor before becoming Transportation Minister.

The alleged loss of funds has been given as one of the reasons for deficiencies in Russia’s defense of the region, resulting in Ukraine’s incursion in August of 2024. [Associated Press, July 7, 2025.]

And in Putin’s world, where there is a failure, there is always a scapegoat.

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Also on Monday — and shortly after Putin’s announcement of Starovoit’s dismissal — Russian news media reported that Andrei Korneichuk, an official with a state railway agency under Starovoit’s ministry, had collapsed during a business meeting and died of an apparent heart attack. [Id.]

Need more? Fine . . . there’s another one. On the previous Friday, July 4th, engineer Andrei Badalov, 62, a vice president of major petroleum company Transneft, died after a “fall” from his upper-floor apartment on Rublevskoye Shosse — the very street on which I lived in 1993.

His death has also been ruled a suicide, and is just one of dozens since 2022 involving prominent businessmen, industry leaders and government officials that have occurred under questionable circumstances and officially been attributed to suicide or heart attacks. [Tim Zadorozhnyy, Kyiv Independent, July 4, 2025.]

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Not all of Putin’s victims find release in death; many more are simply prosecuted and locked away. On the same Monday, July 7th, a former deputy chief of the military’s General Staff, Khalil Arslanov, was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 17 years in prison. He was one of several members of the military close to former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu — who himself was removed from his post but survived the purge and was given the important role of Secretary of the Russian Security Council. [Associated Press, op.cit.]

However, Shoigu’s former deputy, Timur Ivanov, has also been convicted on charges of embezzlement and money laundering, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. [Id.]

And — again on that very busy Monday — the former first deputy chief of the National Guard, Viktor Strigunov, was arrested and charged with corruption and abuse of office. [Id.]

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That’s a lot of bad news from one city over a single weekend — even from Vladimir Putin’s Moscow. Now, if I believed in coincidence . . .

“Seriously?!!”

But I don’t. Not to this extent. And not considering Putin’s record.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/8/25