Putin Appoints Andrey Nikitin as Russia’s New Transport Minister

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree appointing Andrey Nikitin as the country's new transport minister.

"To appoint Andrey Sergeyevich Nikitin as Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation," the document says, The Caspian Post reports, citing TASS.

On July 7, Putin met with Nikitin and invited him to "take another step up the career ladder" and become acting minister. The candidacy was then considered and approved by the State Duma, the lower house of the parliament. After the consideration the decree on the appointment is signed by the President. Such regulations were enshrined in an amendment to the constitution in 2020.

Nikitin has served as Deputy Transport Minister since February. Before that, he headed the Novgorod Region since 2017. He was relieved of this post at his own request. Previously, he headed the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.

Nikitin replaced Roman Starovoit as head of the ministry, who was relieved of his post on the morning of July 7. The reason of his dismissal was not mentioned in Putin's decree. As Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted, if the resignation is related to a loss of trust, this is spelled out in the decree, and in Starovoit's case there was no such wording. Starovoit headed the Transport Ministry since May 2024. On Monday, the official representative of the Investigative Committee of Russia Svetlana Petrenko reported that he was found dead in the Odintsovo urban district. The main version of the investigation is a suicide.