investigation

The final meeting of the commission to investigate the causes of the death of the Kursk nuclear submarine, chaired by the Minister of Industry, Science and Technology Ilya Klebanov, ended last Saturday with the signing of the final act. The official cause of the disaster was the explosion of one of the 65-76 Kit torpedoes, as a result of which almost all of the torpedo ammunition in the first compartment of the Kursk detonated. What led to the death of the submarine will most likely never be known: the signed act is classified as “secret”. After the death of the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in August 2000, Vladimir Putin promised the relatives of the victims to lift the submarine from the seabed and thoroughly understand the causes of the tragedy. However, the president failed to keep his word to the end: although, thanks to foreign assistance, the Kursk was raised and placed in a floating dock, this did not help to establish the root cause that led to the disaster.
The fact is that the commission formed immediately after the death of the Kursk lacked the main thing - independence. It was compiled not from independent specialist experts, but according to the classical canons of domestic bureaucratic ethics. The commission had two almost equal groups: the first represented the interests of the military involved in the operation of the Kursk, and the second represented the interests of the civilian specialists who created the submarine. And the state curator of the defense industry, then Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who was appointed chairman of the commission, had to find not so much the truth as a compromise between these groups.
According to the practice that has developed over the years, they always initially tried to blame the crew for accidents. However, in the case of the Kursk, this was not possible: almost immediately after the death of the submarine, the president posthumously awarded the entire crew with the Order of Courage, and the commander of the Kursk, captain of the first rank Gennady Lyachin, with the star of the Hero of the Russian Federation. The official version of the technical cause of the accident was the explosion of a 650-mm torpedo 65-76 "Kit", however, as Kommersant learned, the commission was never able to determine what caused it.
In full accordance with long-standing domestic traditions, the final act of the commission was classified as “secret”. As one of the commission members, who wished to remain anonymous, told Kommersant, the stamp could be removed “in 20, or even 25 years.” And even if, over time, under public pressure, its unclassified version is published, this is unlikely to help convince the relatives of the victims and all other Russians that the commission members did not hide any important facts from the public.
IVAN Kommersant-SAFRONOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 111/P dated 07/01/2002, page 4

Authors:

Ivan Safronov

The circumstances of the death of the Kursk are classified.