Speaker 1: CAUs Media. Something strange is going on. Another member of
Speaker 1: the Russian elite has been found dead.
Speaker 2: Reports suggests that he fell out of a window poisoned
Speaker 2: with mushrooms.
Speaker 1: He died of heart failure, died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Speaker 3: How comes you are they?
Speaker 4: Dozens of Russian oligachs, politically motivated millionaires have died in
Speaker 4: the space of three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances.
Speaker 4: Many have hidden links to the Kremlins. This is sad
Speaker 4: Oligach Season two, an ongoing investigation into these recently dead
Speaker 4: Russian power brokers. Sad Oligach is created by me jake
Speaker 4: Hanrahan and my Ukrainian colleague Sergei Slipchenko. This is a
Speaker 4: H eleven Studio and Coolso Media production. June seventh, twenty
Speaker 4: twenty five, fifty three year old Russian oligarch Roman Stovoid
Speaker 4: is having a very bad day. Storovoid is the Minister
Speaker 4: of Transport, a prestigious position in Putin's regime. Well, he
Speaker 4: was the Minister of Transport. Stovoid has just been fired.
Speaker 4: Allegedly he's been involved in dodgy dealings in Kursk, a
Speaker 4: region of western Russia. The Ukrainian forces attacked during a
Speaker 4: cross border raid in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Lord.
Speaker 4: This was completely humiliating for Putin and his ongoing invasion
Speaker 4: of Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Ukraine had seized parts of the Western Russian region in
Speaker 1: a surprising cursion.
Speaker 4: Imagine that you invade a country with what was then
Speaker 4: known as the second most powerful military in the world,
Speaker 4: and they invade you right back. The joke at the
Speaker 4: time was that Russia was now only the second best
Speaker 4: army in Russia, Ukraine being the first. How embarrassing. Starovoid
Speaker 4: is being blamed for a lot of this commotion by
Speaker 4: a deputy in Kursk. He's hardly innocent himself, as he's
Speaker 4: been arrested on embezzlement charges, but he is singing like
Speaker 4: a canary, corruption, fraud, theft, he says. Starovoid is involved
Speaker 4: in all of it, and so he's fired from his
Speaker 4: role as the Minister of Transport and sent home back
Speaker 4: to his sprawling Moscow mansion. Later that day, Starovoid gets
Speaker 4: in his car and goes for a drive without its
Speaker 4: security detail. He brings with him a commemorative Makarov pistol.
Speaker 4: It's a very nice looking weapon. The Soviet Union's official
Speaker 4: standard military sidearm. The Macarov is a semi automatic that
Speaker 4: holds eight rounds in a detachable box magazine. It's a
Speaker 4: specifically reliable and accurate pistol. Some call it the Ak
Speaker 4: forty seven of handguns.
Speaker 1: At some point on.
Speaker 4: His journey, Starovoid pulls up to malovich Pak, what looks
Speaker 4: like a manufactured nature reserve for the rich and powerful,
Speaker 4: started with corporate art installations that think they're far too
Speaker 4: clever than they are, perhaps the perfect location for a
Speaker 4: now unemployed Russian oligarch. Parked up in his tesla, Stovoid
Speaker 4: takes the Macarov in his hands, slight weight less than
Speaker 4: a kilo. The barrel is short and smooth. It's got
Speaker 4: a burgundy bake light handle grip with the red Army
Speaker 4: star embossed in the center. Sterovoid puts the macroov to
Speaker 4: his head, steadies his and and pulls the trigger. He
Speaker 4: blows out his own brains inside the car, or at
Speaker 4: least that's the official story one of them. So who
Speaker 4: was Roman Starovoid? Well, as is the norm inside oligarch,
Speaker 4: he was an extremely wealthy individual with many different properties
Speaker 4: across Russia. Tracking his true fortune is difficult, as he
Speaker 4: basically funneled his money through several different avenues. But put
Speaker 4: it this way, Sterovoid made his hay while the sun
Speaker 4: shined during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian oligarchs
Speaker 4: who did that when they were young men are usually
Speaker 4: filthy rich by now. Sergei explains the come up for
Speaker 4: Stovoid and unusually young oligarch.
Speaker 3: He graduated in nineteen eighty five from Baltic State Technical University,
Speaker 3: Saint Petersburg. So nineteen eighty five, you know, putting sun period.
Speaker 3: But he he is quite a significant figure in Saint Petersburg,
Speaker 3: and he's already a kind of uh Sagary is consolidating
Speaker 3: power Starovoids straight out of university. He did essentially an
Speaker 3: engineering degree, but he goes straight into asset management firm
Speaker 3: from nineteen eighty five thousand and one.
Speaker 1: So this I find interesting.
Speaker 4: Starovoid studied engineering, but as soon as he left university
Speaker 4: he went straight into asset management. Now that can mean
Speaker 4: many things. Officially, it enables an organization to examine the
Speaker 4: need for and performance of assets and asset systems at
Speaker 4: different levels.
Speaker 1: Whatever.
Speaker 4: Many oligauchts in Russia and the rest of the world,
Speaker 4: specifically the West, find asset management to be an industry
Speaker 4: in which they thrive. Personally, I think the obduse nature
Speaker 4: of it all is perfect for people look into either
Speaker 4: hide or divert funds. Sterovoid worked for a company called
Speaker 4: First Industrial Alliance, a non state pension fund. On page
Speaker 4: seventy five of a report by the Koc Institute titled
Speaker 4: Action Plan on Strengthening Sanctions against the Russian Federation, it's
Speaker 4: detailed how the company was designated a Russian defense entity
Speaker 4: that we're hit with sanctions due to their role in
Speaker 4: the Ukraine War. We'll hear more about that in a bit,
Speaker 4: but needless to say, Starovoid was involved with entities that
Speaker 4: would later prop up Putin's war from back back back
Speaker 4: in the day, favors are always called in back to surgery.
Speaker 3: There's not much information about this time period, but I mean,
Speaker 3: even the fact that he's just graduating and then straight
Speaker 3: into an asset management firm, I assume he has some
Speaker 3: kind of connections. His father doesn't seem very notable. All
Speaker 3: I have I could find was just brief mentions that
Speaker 3: you know, Starovoids was born in Kursk, and then his father,
Speaker 3: who worked at a nuclear power plant in the course,
Speaker 3: was transferred to Petersburg, and that's kind of how he
Speaker 3: got there and why he grew up there. So all
Speaker 3: we really know is asset management firm nineteenninety five thousand
Speaker 3: and one. Then he is the owner of a stroy Invest,
Speaker 3: a construction company. This is between thousand and two thousand
Speaker 3: and five. I'm sure, as you've seen in this as
Speaker 3: we've been reresearching in construction firms, really good way to
Speaker 3: earn money.
Speaker 4: It's a really good way to hide money and.
Speaker 3: Wash yeah, yeah, you know, you make deliveries. He specifically
Speaker 3: sold materials, but also was involved in some building projects
Speaker 3: by cheaper material than you promised or you know, delivered
Speaker 3: cheaper or less keep the money and things like that.
Speaker 3: It'll come up later.
Speaker 4: This is what we call foreshadowing. Trust me, Storoboids messing
Speaker 4: about with building works led to serious catastrophe for him
Speaker 4: and Russia as a whole.
Speaker 3: This is where he probably learned the ways of the trade,
Speaker 3: and then after two thousand and five he enters the government. Basically,
Speaker 3: it's kind of interesting that he goes straight from the
Speaker 3: company to leading the investment in strategic projects for c
Speaker 3: Saint Petersburg, so like the municipal job. At the same time,
Speaker 3: he's studying, from my understanding, kind of like government administration,
Speaker 3: and he graduates in two thousand and eight. This is
Speaker 3: simultaneously as he's working for the city, he's studying, and
Speaker 3: he keeps this job until twenty twelve when he becomes
Speaker 3: a deputy director of the Department of Industry and Infrastructure.
Speaker 3: This is for the federal government.
Speaker 1: He only works there briefly from.
Speaker 3: My understanding, just like a few months, until he becomes
Speaker 3: the head of rosof door. It's basically a federal agency
Speaker 3: which oversees construction of roads, bridges, et cetera, like anything else.
Speaker 1: Related to federal roadwork.
Speaker 3: He's in charge of it and he works for quite
Speaker 3: some time. He allegedly got sanctioned because he was part
Speaker 3: of the project building the Crimea bridge back in after
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen.
Speaker 4: So he would have been he would have been sanctioned
Speaker 4: for that because he was essentially building a bridge.
Speaker 1: On occupied territory.
Speaker 4: Russia invaded even back then, okay with little Green men,
Speaker 4: but we all know annexed and essentially took Ukrainian land
Speaker 4: i e. Crimea, and he was part of construction. I
Speaker 4: think this is where he first for what I can see,
Speaker 4: this is the way he first kind of ends up
Speaker 4: involved in the Ukraine War essentially from day one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is where he kind of becomes more notable
Speaker 3: in that whole thing. Right before that, he's kind of
Speaker 3: off the raidar doing doing his thing first in Saint Petersburg,
Speaker 3: then on a thal level, but still just you know,
Speaker 3: deputy directors are pretty high role, but also not entirely
Speaker 3: you know, involved in kind of the the whole like
Speaker 3: on a global scale kind of thing. But here after
Speaker 3: Russia invade, you know, annexed to Crimea.
Speaker 1: The I don't know.
Speaker 3: If people remember there's once was pretty look warm, but
Speaker 3: there were some sanctions and stuff.
Speaker 4: Okay, now it's time for a quick adbreak. All right,
Speaker 4: enough of that, now back to the shop. Let's talk
Speaker 4: about Crimea in twenty fourteen. It's the catalyst as to
Speaker 4: why Roman Starovoids ended up with a bullet in his
Speaker 4: head eleven years later in twenty twenty five. Crimea is
Speaker 4: almost an island to the south of Ukraine. It sits
Speaker 4: on a peninsula stretching out between the Black Sea and
Speaker 4: the Sea of Azov. This area is called the Kirk Straight.
Speaker 4: Crimea is attached to Ukraine by a small seven kilometer
Speaker 4: strip of land and now to Russia via the Kirk Bridge.
Speaker 4: That bridge was not always there, and Crimea was not
Speaker 4: always occupied. For now at least, it's currently part of Russia.
Speaker 4: So towards the end of February twenty fourteen, whilst Ukraine
Speaker 4: was in the throes of the Midan Revolution, unidentified military
Speaker 4: men entered Crimea and surrounded the airports. They were all
Speaker 4: dressed in green military fatigues, masked up and with no
Speaker 4: identifying chevrons, patches or IDs on their uniform. They quickly
Speaker 4: became known as the Little Green Men. They were, of course,
Speaker 4: Russian forces. Within a month, the Crimean Autonomous Assembly was
Speaker 4: seized by pro Russian separatists with the help of Russian
Speaker 4: forces in the skies. The new makeshift administration declared independence
Speaker 4: and held a shotgun referendum to make Crimea part of Russia.
Speaker 4: According to the Kremlin, ninety five point five percent of
Speaker 4: voters supports the union with Russia, and so they annexed
Speaker 4: the area. The results of this referendum are obviously not
Speaker 4: recognized internationally. Whilst the region is majority Russian speaking, many
Speaker 4: people there identify it as Ukrainians. They did not and
Speaker 4: do not want to join Russia. Many either fled or
Speaker 4: went into hiding. But to this day there are pro
Speaker 4: Ukrainian underground militant groups in Crimea. They launched clandestine sabotage
Speaker 4: attacks on the occupying Russian forces. Some even sneak into
Speaker 4: Russia proper. The most recent attack happened in September of
Speaker 4: this year when Tatar rebels burned down a Russian air
Speaker 4: defense plan in the Russian city of Tula. They're unseen,
Speaker 4: but they're active. Others left Crimea for mainland Ukraine and
Speaker 4: joined the armed forces to fight against Russia. I spoke
Speaker 4: to one of these people last year as she fought
Speaker 4: on the front lines in the east. Her name is Kafa.
Speaker 4: She was there on the ground when Russias wept into Crimea.
Speaker 4: I think it's important to hear her first hand account
Speaker 4: to fully understand the bloodshed. Starovoid later profited.
Speaker 5: From I am from Crimea. I was born in Crimea,
Speaker 5: and for me and my family, it started way back
Speaker 5: then in twenty fourteen. I am in my twenties, so
Speaker 5: I was a teenager back then, and it was really
Speaker 5: messy at the time, during the so called Russian Spring
Speaker 5: in Crimea and witnessing it all and everything that came
Speaker 5: after you. For the record, I lived, me and my
Speaker 5: family lived under the occupation until twenty fifteen. It was
Speaker 5: a shit show. Everyone was really scared. It's our family
Speaker 5: home and we had like elderly grandparents, so we stayed.
Speaker 5: And Russia just started immediate politicizing the children, so basically
Speaker 5: us like we had to sing Russian and them, I
Speaker 5: mean we didn't sing. It was it was funny, like
Speaker 5: political resistance started there because me and some other kids
Speaker 5: had a small resistance group. We were speaking Ukrainian, so
Speaker 5: we were doing that and then some Cigare police came whatever,
Speaker 5: and then later we decided that it's a better idea
Speaker 5: to flee because it did not look good.
Speaker 4: What was it like when like the day Russia just
Speaker 4: arrived in Crimea. Was it like instant everything started to change.
Speaker 5: No, it was first really unclear. Everything just got shut down,
Speaker 5: so no transport, no infrastructure working. We didn't go to school.
Speaker 5: Some armed men are around. You are not supposed to
Speaker 5: leave your homes, like lockdown kind of situation. Then some
Speaker 5: like armed riots kind of things, protests in front of
Speaker 5: the Parliament building, people being killed and shipped. Then at
Speaker 5: some point it got very clear there is no help
Speaker 5: coming at the Ukrainian military basis. Well, basically Ukrainian military
Speaker 5: were either captured or shot dead by Russian military, some
Speaker 5: of them decided to switch sides, some of them managed
Speaker 5: to evacuate, So I guess it was also crazy for
Speaker 5: military personnel, but for civilians it was messy. I don't know.
Speaker 5: When the full scale invasion started. I very quickly realized
Speaker 5: I just can't stay where I am. I started to
Speaker 5: train some friends of mine who are already serving in
Speaker 5: the ninety third on different positions drown pilots, engineers. Then
Speaker 5: I just got in because I already was a qualified person.
Speaker 5: I very quickly passed all this documents military stuff, and
Speaker 5: I finished the drone pilot course, so I was ready
Speaker 5: to fly.
Speaker 4: Basically, Russia needed a way to ferry its military back
Speaker 4: and forth into occupied Crimea from the mainland. Remember, the
Speaker 4: country isn't actually connected physically to the peninsula, and so
Speaker 4: in twenty sixteen a huge construction project began. The Kirch Bridge,
Speaker 4: also known as Crimea Bridge. As Sergei says, this is
Speaker 4: more than just a way to get for a to B.
Speaker 3: The point of the bridge isn't just to connect Russia
Speaker 3: and Crimea. It's almost like a symbolic thing showing like, well,
Speaker 3: we're connected. This is a part of Russia.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of.
Speaker 3: Symbolism in there, and even from the technical kind of
Speaker 3: logistics point, you know, it's important to have that connection.
Speaker 4: According to the Environmental Science and Technology Journal, the Kirch
Speaker 4: Bridge is a seriously heavy duty project.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 4: The Kerch Bridge consists of a bridge structure for a
Speaker 4: four lane highway and a separate structure for a parallel
Speaker 4: double track railway line. The shipping canal in the Kirk
Speaker 4: Straight spanned by two two hundred and twenty seven met
Speaker 4: along tied arch bridges with a clear height of thirty
Speaker 4: five meters. The motorway bridge is sixteen point eight kilometers
Speaker 4: long and has two lanes separated by guardrails. Each carriageway
Speaker 4: has a structurally separate superstructure made of an orthotropic slab
Speaker 4: on two load carriers. The railway bridge is eighteen kilometers
Speaker 4: long and its tracks lie on ballast beds and a
Speaker 4: superstructure made of steel two cell hollow girders with orthotropic plates.
Speaker 4: The bridge stand on five hundred and ninety five pillars
Speaker 4: with a spacing of fifty four to sixty four meters,
Speaker 4: which are founded on around seven thousand piles. This makes
Speaker 4: the bridge structure the longest in Europe. The construction period
Speaker 4: was four years and it cost three point six billion dollars.
Speaker 4: You need to know this information to get a full
Speaker 4: picture of the sorts of resources and involvement Roman Starovoid
Speaker 4: brought to Putin's largest project, the War on Ukraine. Starovoid
Speaker 4: played a significant role in the construction of the Kerch
Speaker 4: Bridge with his direct help. It was his company that
Speaker 4: provided money, assistance, materials. As you can see, that is
Speaker 4: no small feat. Storovoid was eventually internationally sanctioned for his involvement.
Speaker 4: He didn't realize at the time, but his part in
Speaker 4: all of this the Crimean Bridge lined him up for
Speaker 4: his eventual downfall in Kursk.
Speaker 1: Remember.
Speaker 4: Kursk is where Roman Starovoy is originally from. He was
Speaker 4: born there in nineteen seventy two, when the Soviet Union
Speaker 4: was still up and running. From humble beginnings to having
Speaker 4: properties all over the place. The boy done well. From
Speaker 4: what we can see, Starovoy owned at least five apartments,
Speaker 4: including luxury real estate, in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. He
Speaker 4: also had a big country mansion on a plot of
Speaker 4: almost twenty acres. It looks like going straight into asset
Speaker 4: management having studied engineering was the right move for Starovoid. Okay,
Speaker 4: now it's time for a quick adbreak. All right, enough
Speaker 4: for that. Now back to the show. So let's fast
Speaker 4: forward to October eleventh, twenty eighteen, seven years before the
Speaker 4: gunshot in the Tesla. By decree of the President of
Speaker 4: Russia put in himself, Roman Starovoid was appointed as the
Speaker 4: acting governor of the Kursk Region. Everything he'd done in
Speaker 4: Crimea had kept his profile in favor with the dictator
Speaker 4: as a local lad. This appointment was, of course a
Speaker 4: big deal for Starovoid, probably a dream come true. A
Speaker 4: year later, he completed what is arguably the most ironic
Speaker 4: training he could have taken, part in an anti corruption program.
Speaker 4: This was part of the Higher School of Public Administration,
Speaker 4: a sort of finishing school for governors to ultimately make
Speaker 4: sure they don't come out as corrupt as many of
Speaker 4: their predecessors. Following this, he fully entered in a circle
Speaker 4: the Kremlin power structure. What I fin an interesting is
Speaker 4: how he was being directly promoted by Putin. You don't
Speaker 4: really end up working your way into that position unless
Speaker 4: you're ready to do essentially whatever the state wants you
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, like.
Speaker 3: Being handpicked by Putin is a pretty big deal.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 3: Additionally, in twenty twenty, he became a member of the
Speaker 3: State Council. It's sort of like the minister's cabinet where
Speaker 3: they're essentially they advised Putin and they decided all the policies, etc.
Speaker 3: They're basically the ones deciding what's going to happen in Russia,
Speaker 3: what the laws are with the policies it says internal
Speaker 3: and for it. So they essentially oversee everything. And it's
Speaker 3: basically like the cabinet, right, they oversee various parts of
Speaker 3: the country and they make all the rules and start
Speaker 3: of what it was part of this cabinet. From my understanding,
Speaker 3: who's just a member and he wasn't the head or anything,
Speaker 3: but still even being the member is quite a big deal.
Speaker 3: And this cabinet or this council was created by Putin himself,
Speaker 3: they're essentially handpicked by Putin to be in this cabinet,
Speaker 3: and from my understanding, they're like a step down from
Speaker 3: Putin in terms of power in Russia, like there's no
Speaker 3: going higher than that. In a sense, that's kind of
Speaker 3: I'd say that the highest position he could probably reach.
Speaker 4: Storovoid fully embraced his new role. He wanted to be
Speaker 4: the governor of Kursk almost indefinitely. He said in August
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two that he wants to rule the region
Speaker 4: for at least the next eight years until twenty thirty.
Speaker 4: In the UK we call this brass neck, extremely brazen behavior.
Speaker 4: This is the kind of guy he became. Storovoid was
Speaker 4: all up from his admittance into Putin's in a circle.
Speaker 4: He felt big, important. He became a man about town.
Speaker 4: He even received a Putin sponsored award from one of
Speaker 4: Russia's internal ministries. The trophy a commemorative Makarov pistol, the
Speaker 4: very weapon he shot himself with. Around twenty twenty three,
Speaker 4: Star of Wick got involved in the war again. Russia
Speaker 4: invaded Ukraine a year previous, and the bloodshed was extreme.
Speaker 4: Whole cities were flattened by Russian warplanes, ten ninety tanks
Speaker 4: rolled through Ukrainian streets. Young men and women took up arms,
Speaker 4: military battalions, volunteer units, clandestine saboteurs.
Speaker 1: The war has been brutal.
Speaker 4: I've seen it myself firsthand, reporting on the ground in Boradanka.
Speaker 4: As an air raid siren, Basically it means there's Russian
Speaker 4: jets in the sky where a rocket's been fired nearby.
Speaker 4: Apartment blocks were blown to bits, the children's toys strewn
Speaker 4: amongst the rubber. Dozens of civilians were handcuffed here and
Speaker 4: shot in the back of the head by Russian forces, executions,
Speaker 4: war crimes, and nightmare. It's amongst this chaos that Stovoids
Speaker 4: saw an opportunity. When the war kicked off in full,
Speaker 4: when Russian armor moved into Ukraine, volunteer units formed on
Speaker 4: the border. These were Russians who won't in the military
Speaker 4: but still wanted to play a role in the conflict.
Speaker 4: Sterovoids seemed to have a similar desire. He consolidated the
Speaker 4: patrolling volunteer units and became their de facto leader. The
Speaker 4: Russian media referred to him as being the general of
Speaker 4: these factions. Now bear in mind that Stovoid had never
Speaker 4: served a day in his life. He'd always worked behind desks,
Speaker 4: not on the front lines. But still he sought an
Speaker 4: opportunity to act the tough guy and show Pootin that
Speaker 4: he was fully committed. He took control all of a
Speaker 4: group called the Voluntary People Squad began recruiting many new fighters.
Speaker 4: This put him firmly into the sludge of the Russian
Speaker 4: war underbelly. It's here where he came into proximity with
Speaker 4: p MC Wagner, the far right Kremlin backed mercenary force.
Speaker 4: Wagner is known for its rampant brutality. They've even filmed
Speaker 4: themselves executing their own members with a sledgehammer to the head.
Speaker 4: Let's hear from journalist John Lekner. He's been documenting Wagner
Speaker 4: for years. He wrote a whole book about them called
Speaker 4: Death is Our Business.
Speaker 2: Essentially, Wagner Group was a Russian private military company PMC
Speaker 2: that very much had very close ties to the Russian
Speaker 2: state itself, but ultimately it was founded by Yevgeny Pregosian,
Speaker 2: a guy who was sort of a small time gangster
Speaker 2: in Saint Petersburg who managed to raise himself up to
Speaker 2: being a restauran tour and then moved his way up
Speaker 2: through the Russian elite to eventually get the gig of
Speaker 2: providing meals to the Russian military and schools, and ultimately
Speaker 2: came together with a former Russian military intelligence officer, Dmitri
Speaker 2: Utgen in twenty fourteen to provide mercenaries for the Russian
Speaker 2: State to support rebels in eastern Ukraine and dnbas as
Speaker 2: the war was cooking off there in twenty fourteen and
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, and then eventually back in Ukraine in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two during the full scale invasion, where Wagner played
Speaker 2: an outsized role, especially in Bachmut In the meat Grinder,
Speaker 2: when Progosion recruited up to fifty thousand convicts to fight
Speaker 2: for him to try and take the city from Ukrainian four.
Speaker 1: PMC.
Speaker 4: Wagner recruits act like maniacs on the front lines. There
Speaker 4: were dozens of videos of them committing war crimes, chopping
Speaker 4: off people's limbs, heads, all sorts. It's grim. It's this
Speaker 4: group that Roman Starovoid chose to fall in with. He
Speaker 4: made his way to a Wagner training base after hearing
Speaker 4: about their infamy. He stayed for almost a week, he
Speaker 4: shot assault rifles and grenade launchers. He drove around in
Speaker 4: an armored personnel carrier. He was shown how to properly
Speaker 4: throw hand grenades. We found an image from this time
Speaker 4: where Starovoid is dressed up in full military fatigues. He's
Speaker 4: acting like a soldier. He's wearing a helmet and a
Speaker 4: plate carrier with a PMC Wagner patch stuck on the
Speaker 4: front of his chest. Behind him are four Wagner recruits
Speaker 4: with rifles simulating some kind of frontline scenario. The now
Speaker 4: incinerated leader of Wagner Getny Progosion confirmed at the time
Speaker 4: that Starovoid trained with the fighters and slept in their
Speaker 4: barracks as far as we can see, though he did
Speaker 4: not actually go out to fight on the front lines.
Speaker 4: Dued up off the back of his ghoulish adventure holiday,
Speaker 4: Starovoid began running his mouth about the strength of his
Speaker 4: regent Kursk. He bragged officially about how well fortified the
Speaker 4: area was. Ukrainians could never get in. Kursk is solid.
Speaker 4: He'd had the barriers built up.
Speaker 1: Since twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4: In fact, Starovoid went as far as to say that
Speaker 4: the territorial defenses and voluntary units he'd taken over were
Speaker 4: the most powerful in Russia. On August six, twenty twenty four,
Speaker 4: Ukrainian forces launched a daring cross border raid into Kersk.
Speaker 4: The troops smashed through the border and began taking out
Speaker 4: any armed resistance from the Russians. It was the biggest
Speaker 4: foreign attack on Russia since World War Two and was
Speaker 4: at the time one of the biggest battlefield gains for
Speaker 4: Ukraine since twenty twenty two. How embarrassing for Starovoid. Russian
Speaker 4: reservists were hurried to the area and nearly two hundred
Speaker 4: thousand civilians had to flee their homes. In an official statement,
Speaker 4: Putin said that the Kersk operation was an attempt to
Speaker 4: undermine Russia's stability. Not shit, we will deliver a worthy response.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 4: Things got so bad that by August thirteenth, Russia had
Speaker 4: to launch rockets, armed drones and even airstrikes on Kersk,
Speaker 4: its own land. They were trying to dislodge the Ukrainian
Speaker 4: forces by any means necessary. It made Putin look silly
Speaker 4: and even harm the economy. As a result of this chaos,
Speaker 4: the value of the ruble ten month low. Ukrainian forces
Speaker 4: controlled parts of Kursk for up to half a year.
Speaker 4: The battle was drawn out and costly. The Kremlin was humiliated.
Speaker 4: The curse grade was a total catastrophe. And who was
Speaker 4: meant to prevent this from happening? Roman Stovoid? So what
Speaker 4: went wrong? Was this just an unstoppable crisis, a freak
Speaker 4: event that no one could have truly prepared for. Well,
Speaker 4: I imagine that's what Starovoid argued when summoned to answer for
Speaker 4: the raid. But as I said at the start, there
Speaker 4: is more at play here. In April twenty twenty five,
Speaker 4: two of Stovoid's curse deputies were arrested. The criminal case
Speaker 4: was opened into the theft of state funds that were
Speaker 4: allocated to the construction of the Kursk border with Ukraine.
Speaker 4: It turns out that one too four billion Russian rubles
Speaker 4: were stolen. That's a maximum of fifty one million dollars.
Speaker 4: The deputies were not going down on their own for this.
Speaker 4: They snitched on Roman Starovoid, saying he was part of
Speaker 4: the raquet. How could he not be, He was the
Speaker 4: head governor of Kursk. He'd apparently stolen the millions. Whilst
Speaker 4: bragging about how strong the defenses of his region were. Remember,
Speaker 4: Starovoid was part of Putin's inner circle. He was running
Speaker 4: around curse playing action man with Wagner, telling everyone how
Speaker 4: strong his oblast was whilst stealing so much money from
Speaker 4: the coffers. That the fortifications weren't constructed properly.
Speaker 1: That's a big deal, and who knows.
Speaker 4: Had Storovoid kept his hands clean, Ukraine might not have
Speaker 4: been able to breeze through the border. There were some
Speaker 4: reports that Putin personally fired Starovoid in July. After that,
Speaker 4: his card was punched, his brain was shot at the
Speaker 4: back of his head. It's quite pos that the case
Speaker 4: of Roman starovoids mysterious death is actually some sort of
Speaker 4: murder by proxy, as in, he understood, if you fuck
Speaker 4: up this badly, you're gonna get taken out anyway. Don't
Speaker 4: make it difficult for them, it will probably be worse
Speaker 4: for you. He knew what was coming. Perhaps that's why
Speaker 4: Roman Starovoid put the gun to his own head, or
Speaker 4: maybe it didn't happen like that at all. Stay with me,
Speaker 4: this is where things get weird. Russia's official State Investigative
Speaker 4: Committee says that Starovoid was found in his card July seventh,
Speaker 4: shot in the head, gone.
Speaker 1: We know this.
Speaker 4: However, there are reports from Russian media that contradict this.
Speaker 4: Some say Starovoid was actually found in the bushes slightly
Speaker 4: away from his car. Okay, maybe he got out and
Speaker 4: shot himself outside. Whatever, But then there is a bigger claim.
Speaker 4: There's footage filmed from a distance that shows Starovoid's corpse
Speaker 4: being retrieved from a ravine. A young woman can be
Speaker 4: seen identifying the body. Here's a quote from Russian site
Speaker 4: Business Gazetta explaining this footage. A girl moves away from
Speaker 4: a ravine, accompanied by several men. She refuses their help,
Speaker 4: squats down, covers her face with her hands, and cries.
Speaker 4: Perhaps the recording shows either a girl or an assistant
Speaker 4: to the former head of the Ministry of Transport Starovoid.
Speaker 4: According to some reports, the girl is twenty five years
Speaker 4: old and once graduated from Kursk State Medical University. Judging
Speaker 4: by the reaction she identified the body, That twenty five
Speaker 4: year old woman was Paulina Korneva, Stovoid's girlfriend. The policeman
Speaker 4: for her to come and identify his body for what
Speaker 4: is going on here? Initially on the state press release,
Speaker 4: Starovoids shot himself inside his tesla. But actually it seems
Speaker 4: he was pulled out of a ravine and identified by
Speaker 4: his girlfriend. Maybe we could just chalk this up to
Speaker 4: confusion and press hastiness.
Speaker 1: Details got confused.
Speaker 4: Due to reports that came out in the immediate aftermath
Speaker 4: of Stoboid's death July seventh, Right.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe not.
Speaker 4: It turns out that day is not even certain now.
Speaker 4: Some reports say that his death was actually either July
Speaker 4: fifth or July sixth. Some say he was already dead
Speaker 4: by the date of the official statement. Perhaps someone with
Speaker 4: previous knowledge of a plant hit on sterovoids accidentally put
Speaker 4: out the info too soon. Who knows. None of it
Speaker 4: makes any sense. Starovoid left no suicide notes. He exited
Speaker 4: his office without saying by to anyone after his firing.
Speaker 4: He then either shot himself in his car or in
Speaker 4: a ravine. How the fuck do you shoot yourself into
Speaker 4: a ravine. That's a Looney Tunes death. Things don't happen
Speaker 4: like that. It does not add up. Due to the
Speaker 4: grip the Kremlin has on most of the Russian media,
Speaker 4: Russian dissidents, anyone against them, we don't have all the
Speaker 4: answers but one thing is for sure. This case stinks,
Speaker 4: and there's one more thing. Turns out, Starovoid wasn't the
Speaker 4: only oligarch type to die on July seventh. It wasn't
Speaker 4: even the only one to die within his industry on
Speaker 4: that day. A man named Alexi Cornychuck also died on
Speaker 4: this date. He was the deputy head of Property Management
Speaker 4: of the Railway Transport Agency. In an extreme coincidence, he
Speaker 4: died in the office building of the Ministry of Transport,
Speaker 4: Starovoid's workplace. Apparently, corny Chuck died during a meeting. Sources
Speaker 4: say he stood up first, then collapsed and died.
Speaker 1: What are the chances you've been listening to?
Speaker 4: Sad Oliga Season two Produced by H eleven Studios for
Speaker 4: Cool Zone Media. Writing, editing, producing, concept and recording by myself,
Speaker 4: Jake Hanrahan, Research and reporting by Sergei Slipchenko, Me and
Speaker 4: Victim Mihail. Executive producing by Sophie Lichtman. Music by Sam Black,
Speaker 4: artwork by George Jutful. Sound mixed by Splicing Block. See
Speaker 4: my other projects at Hanrahan dot tv. Get me on
Speaker 4: social media at Jake Underscore Hanrahan.
Speaker 1: That's h A n i a h p n