The commission has not yet decided on the causes of the accident on the Nerpa.

Yesterday it became known that sailor Dmitry Grobov, so far the only accused in the case of the accident on the Nerpa nuclear submarine, has been assigned a psychiatric examination. Meanwhile, the state commission investigating the circumstances of the emergency has not yet come to a definite conclusion about the reasons for the incident. One of the members of the Nerpa's delivery team believes that the fire extinguishing system did work due to a malfunction in the control panel of the ship's general systems. Meanwhile, it is expected that sea trials of the Nerpa will be completed in February-March next year.

Yesterday, the military investigation department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Prosecutor's Office for the Pacific Fleet reported that in relation to contract sailor Dmitry Grobov, who is accused of unauthorized activation of the fire extinguishing system in the second, residential compartment of the Nerpa (on the evening of November 8, 20 people died as a result of the activation of the system. - Kommersant ), a psychiatric examination was ordered. This is a standard procedure that is prescribed in relation to those suspected of committing crimes that entailed grave consequences, explained a source in the military investigation department. According to preliminary data, the examination will take place in a psychiatric hospital in Ussuriysk.

Representatives of the investigation still refrain from making official comments. “The investigation continues,” said deputy head of the military investigation department Yuri Sazonov. Sailor Grobov's lawyer Valery Portnov also flatly refuses to communicate with the press. “I will not comment or explain anything,” he told Kommersant yesterday. However, according to some reports, witnesses and the defense signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding the case materials. Let us remind you that sailor Grobov was detained on November 13. According to the investigation, he unauthorizedly calibrated the temperature sensor from the local control point, made a mistake, as a result of which the fire extinguishing system was activated and freon entered the compartment.

The state commission investigating the causes of the accident has not yet come to final conclusions. Sergei Stolnikov, a member of the submarine’s delivery team and a mechanical engineer at the Amur Shipyard, reported this to Kommersant. “Representatives of the developers are working on the boat - the Malachite design bureau, the Aurora NPO - but so far they have not been able to establish for what reason the fire extinguishing system (fire extinguishing system - Kommersant ) was launched,” said Mr. Stolnikov. He himself believes that sailor Grobov could not launch the LOK on his own and the cause of the accident is “design flaws.” “On the Nerpa they are testing a new model of Molybdenum (control of general ship systems - Kommersant ), an Indian version. This is a “crude” system that has previously caused failures. The reason, perhaps, is that its main developer in the summer died, and the system stood abandoned for three months. Only before the tests it seemed to be fixed,” Sergei Stolnikov told Kommersant. “I think that on November 8, the LOCH started up due to a failure in Molybdenum,” the mechanical engineer concluded. Let us remind you that the Nerpa provides both automatic and manual launches of the system.

The NGO Aurora declined to comment on this matter yesterday. “General Director Konstantin Shilov is currently on a business trip; there will be no comments until he returns,” the association said.

Although official conclusions about the causes of the accident on the Nerpa have not yet been made, testing of the submarine will continue. As a source at the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet told Kommersant, sea trials of the submarine are planned to be completed no later than February-March 2009.

Alexey Kommersant-Chernyshev, Vladivostok

The sailor will be tested for mental stability