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Russia Turns Down French Proposal to Help Rescue Sunken Sub
Russia has turned down a French proposal to help it evacuate the crew of the sunken submarine "Kursk" in the Barents Sea, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted French navy officials as saying Tuesday.
French Navy Admiral Yves Lagane has contacted the navy attache of the Russian embassy in Paris and proposed sending a 10-man team, including four military doctors specialized in under-sea operation, four divers and two experts of nuclear propulsion.
But the Russian side turned down the offer, AFP quoted officials at the headquarters of the chief of general staff of the French armed forces as saying.
The evacuation of the 116-man crew of "Kursk" begun Tuesday afternoon.
The multipurpose submarine went down to the bottom of the Barents Sea on Sunday while attending a routine exercise of the Russian Northern Fleet.
The cause of the accident remains unknown, but Moscow says a collision with another object or an explosion in the first compartment of the submarine as among the most probable scenarios.
The "Kursk", with a displacement of 14,700-23,860 tons and able to dive to an depth of up to 500 meters, was commissioned for the Russian Navy in 1995. It is armed with torpedoes and "Granite" cruise missiles.
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