Russian Government Rules Out Collision In Kursk Tragedy

KURSK SALVAGE

Kursk Gives Up Another Body
The body of another crew member has been recovered from the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk, bringing to 86 the total number of bodies found aboard the vessel, Interfax news agency reported Monday citing the Northern Fleet's military prosecutor Vladimir Mulov.

The crew member's body was discovered during the examination of a lower deck in the third compartment of the vessel, the Northern Fleet said. It is the first body recovered since the beginning of the year.

So far 75 bodies have been identified. All 118 crew perished when the vessel, the pride of the Northern fleet, sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea during naval exercises on August 12, 2000.

The submarine was raised from the seabed in October and towed to dry dock in the Roslyakovo ship-building factory not far from Russia's northwestern port of Murmansk. Investigators are dismantling the vessel in an effort to discover the cause of the tragedy, as yet unkown.

Moscow (AFP) Jan 22, 2002
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov for the first time on Tuesday ruled out the possibility that a collision with a foreign submarine could have sunk the nuclear-powered Kursk in August 2000.

Experts who have examined the wreck of the vessel raised last October have found no proof of a collision, Klebanov said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Specialists from Rubin, the company that built the sub, have looked at fragments of the external hull from the place where it suffered the most damage.

"It is a catastrophe that happened because of objective reasons which accumulated during the 1990s," said Klebanov, referring to a lack of financing which has led to a deterioration of the Russian navy.

"The state must pay more attention to its armed forces" so that such catastrophes do not happen again, he said.

Klebanov gave no further details but said an official statement on the cause of the Kursk trategy could be made in mid-2002, after the raising of the bow where missiles and torpedoes were stored.

All 118 crew perished when a series of explosions caused the vessel, the pride of the Northern fleet, to sink to the bottom of the Barents Sea during naval exercises on August 12, 2000.

The submarine apart from the bow was raised from the seabed in October and towed to dry dock in the Roslyakovo ship-building factory not far from Russia's northwestern port of Murmansk.

Theories abound as to the cause of the sinking, with investigations so far favouring three: a collision with another possibly NATO vessel; a torpedo exploding in a firing chamber; and the possibility that the sub hit a World War II mine.

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KURSK SALVAGE

Russia To Return To Barents Sea Next Summer To Retrieve Bow

Moscow (AFP) Nov 25, 2001
Only parts of the bow section of the Russian submarine Kursk, left lying on the seabed after a lifting operation last month, are to be recovered, ITAR-TASS quoted an official as saying Sunday.

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