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Russian President Decides to Salvage Kursk Crew Bodies
Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday made a final decision on the plan of raising the nuclear submarine Kursk sinking in the Barents Sea during an August drill and gave "go-ahead" to salvage the dead crewmen.
The president ordered the retrieval of the sailors' bodies on board the sunken submarine in October-November of this year, and the operation to lift the sub itself to the surface will be done in late summer or early fall of 2001, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov told the press after meeting with Putin Tuesday.
Klebanov, also head of the Russian governmental committee on the investigation of the Kursk disaster, said the operation to raise the Kursk will be international and Belgian, Dutch, U.S., British and Norwegian companies have already expressed a desire to take part in the 45-million-U.S. dollar program.
Moscow shows most interest in the Belgian project. "In all likelihood, it will be a Russian-Belgian-Dutch joint operation," he said, adding that an international foundation will be specially set up for implementing this project.
Klebanov said Russia is also negotiating with a Norwegian salvage company on the rescue plan.
On what caused the submarine's sinking, he said about 20 versions had been looked at. "Now, there remain three versions: collision with an underwater object, collision with a World War II water mine, and a small initial explosion in the first sub compartment," Klebanov said, noting that the real reason for the shipwreck will be found out probably only after the sub is lifted.
Investigations show that a powerful explosion equivalent to three-five tons of TNT had ripped through the doomed sub 104 seconds after the initial blast in the boat's head part, and most of the crew were killed during the first minutes of the catastrophe. Because of this, "the first three or four compartments are completely destroyed and it will not be possible to retrieve anyone from there," Klebanov said.
However, "all the last three versions are indirectly confirmed and further inquiry is needed," the deputy premier said, adding that experiments to clarify the situation in the Kursk's sinking are currently being conducted.
Last Thursday, Klebanov said that retrieving the crew bodies in the sub would be "a very difficult and dangerous technical job" and the government may abandon the salvage plan.
He said that according to an international naval tradition, sunken submarines are considered as common graves for sailors and have never been lifted in the experience of the world.
"But the president has made the decision and the decision must stand," he said Tuesday.
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov told reporters Tuesday that Moscow had asked the U.S. twice to allow Russian specialists to examine the two American submarines staying in the Barents Sea at the tragedy time, but Washington had refused.
"For the time being, submarines of the Kursk's type will not be used any more," a Russian ranking military official said Tuesday.
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