Marta Gichko08:46, 23.07.25

Suicides and political repression are increasing, creating a vacuum of fear in Kremlin offices.

Russia is undergoing a series of high-profile arrests, convictions and mysterious deaths that are paralyzing even the highest echelons of government. The latest case, the suicide of former Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, has shocked the country’s political elite, writes  The Telegraph.

“It looks terrible,” said a former official in the Russian presidential administration, who asked to remain anonymous. “Arrests, deaths, scandals… People have screwed themselves up.”

On July 7, Starovoit, the 53-year-old former governor of Kursk Oblast, committed suicide while under investigation for large-scale embezzlement. His former deputy, Alexei Smirnov, had allegedly already testified against him.

A vacuum of fear has formed at the highest level. “What is really strange is that the president (Russian President Vladimir Putin – UNIAN) has not expressed any sympathy,” the same official noted. “Even the prime minister is silent. This is a sign.”

So far, courts have handed down decades of prison sentences even to former deputy defense ministers, and falling out of windows has become a new political metaphor. Transneft vice president Andrey Badalov did not survive a fall from a balcony, and billionaire Konstantin Strukov’s private jet was forcibly returned when he tried to leave the country.

“The rules have changed,” says Alexandra Prokopenko, a Carnegie Center expert and former advisor to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. “Now it doesn’t matter who supports you. It’s not the strongest who survives, but the most cautious.”

There is currently a growing paranoid mood in the Kremlin. One current government official admits:

“I try to stay away from dangerous topics… We’re all locked in our own little worlds.”

(C)UNIAN 2025