Russian Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Is Latest in Long Line of Putin Allies To Die Unexpectedly
Irina Podnosova, who took the helm of the country’s highest court in 2024, succumbs to cancer.
The chief justice of Russia’s supreme court, Irina Podnosova, has died unexpectedly in the second year of her tenure at the helm of the country’s highest court.
Podnosova, who held the court’s top position since April 2024, succumbed to cancer while reportedly working through her treatment, according to the Moscow Times. She made history as the first woman to lead the court, stepping into the role after the death of a longtime chief justice, Vyacheslav Lebedev, who passed away in February 2024, also following a prolonged illness and after chairing the supreme court since 1991.
President Putin tapped Podnosova, his former classmate from Leningrad State University, for the historic role, with the Federation Council confirming her appointment to a six-year term based on the president’s recommendation.
The chief justice’s death is the latest in a long line of Putin allies who have suddenly died.
Earlier this month, the Russian minister of transport, Roman Starovoit, was found dead in the Odintsovo district of Moscow just hours after Mr. Putin fired him from his cabinet position. While officials said his body was found in his car, local media reported that he was found in a small park next to a parking lot with a pistol presented to him as an official gift at his side.
In August 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose Wagner mercenary group deployed fighters during the invasion of Ukraine, died in a fiery plane crash between Moscow and St. Petersburg just two months after the former Putin ally launched a brazen mutiny against the Kremlin.
Both Mr. Putin and Podnosova attended Leningrad University’s Faculty of Law and graduated together in 1975. Podnosova had worked at the supreme court since 2020, where she served as a deputy chairwoman focusing on economic disputes and arbitration cases.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that despite Podnosova’s complete lack of arbitration experience, she wielded considerable influence within Russia’s judicial hierarchy.
Sources told the news outlet that “everyone understands who is behind her.”
