The death of Russian ministers serves as a warning to political elites

It was a dramatic start of the week in Russia.

On Monday morning, President Vladimir Putin removed his transport minister Roman starvoit.

Until noon, starvit was dead; His body was found in a gunshot wound in a park on the edge of Moscow. A pistol on the side of the body, strikingly.

He assumed that the former ministers have taken their lives, said the exploration.

This morning, the Tabloid Moscow was a feeling of shock in the Komsomolts.

“A few hours after the President’s removal of him, the suicide of Roman Starovoit is almost a unique event in Russian history,” the paper announced in the paper.

Because for the example of the government ministers killed themselves here, we need to go back for more than thirty years before the Soviet Union’s collapse.

After the failure of the rebellion by the Communist Ranghapanis in August 1999, 199, one of the ring leaders of the rebellion – Soviet Home Minister Boris Pugu was shot himself.

Kremlin has said a little bit about the death of Starovit.

“How much shock would you be shocked to find the Federal Minister a few hours after the President’s removal?” I asked Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the Kremlin Conference call.

“The common people cannot be shocked by this,” Pacekov replied. “Of course, this was a shock to us.

“The investigation to answer all the questions depends on it. When it is turned on, it can only guess. But it is more for the media and political scholars. Not for us.”

The Russian press is really filled with estimates.

Many Russian newspapers today linked Roman Starovit to the events in the Kursk region on the border of Ukraine. Starovoit was the regional governor for more than five years before he was appointed Minister of Transport on May 224.

Under his leadership – and with a large number of government money – Governor Starwight had started the construction of defensive embankments on the border. Last year, it was not so strong to prevent Ukrainian troops from breaking and capturing Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region.

Since then, the successor of Starvoit as the Governor, Alexei Sminov and his former Deputy Alexi Deodov have been charged with a huge fraud related to the construction of the embankment.

“Mr. Starovit may have become one of the main defendants in this case,” suggested by today’s business daily Komersant.

The Russian authorities did not confirm this.

But if a former minister is afraid to be prosecuted for his own life, what does it tell you about today’s Russia?

Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs of the new school in New York, says, “The most dramatic part of Russia in Russia, the most dramatic government official (kills himself), says Nina Khrushcheva, a new school in New York.

“If he was afraid that if he was investigating, he will have to suffer ten -year jail and his family will suffer a lot. If there is no way. I immediately thought of one of Stalin’s cabinet ministers Sergo Ordzonicidze, who had killed himself in 1 3737.

The death of Roman Starovit may have been made in the documents here. But this “almost unique event in Russian history” has received the least coverage on the TV on the TV.

Perhaps that is the reason why the Kremlin recognizes the power of television. TV is more effective in Russia than newspapers. Therefore, when television is considered, CASIC’s CASIC is more careful and careful with messaging.

In a four -minute report on Monday, Putin, in the main news of Russia -1 on Monday, Putin included the appointment of new activist Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin.

There was no mention that the previous transport minister was removed. Or he may have found dead.

Just forty minutes later, at the end of the News Bulletin, anchor briefly mentioned the death of Roman Starovit.

Newsder dedicated it all in 18 seconds, which means that most Russians may not see the dramatic events of Monday as a significant development.

This is a different story for political elite. For the minister, the governor and other Rashtras for those who have tried to become a part of the political system, what happened to Starovit will serve as a warning.

“Unlike earlier, when you can get these jobs, be rich, promote the federal level from the regional level, today, if you want to survive, there is no career way,” says Nina Khrushcheva.

“Not only is the upward mobility to start, but even the lower movements end at the end of the death.”

This is a reminder about the dangers that may arise from the wrong fall of the system.