Curse of the Kursk?

A few words about the fate of experts on the most high-profile maritime disasters

Last week ended the investigation against the former chief of the topographic service of the General Staff of the Russian Defense Ministry Sergei Kozlov. He was charged under two articles: abuse of office with causing especially grave consequences and fraud on an especially large scale. According to investigators, Sergei Kozlov traded in military cards and fraudulently received an apartment from the RF Ministry of Defense. The damage that Kozlov inflicted on the state by his actions was estimated by the investigation at 27 million rubles.

It is curious that at one time Sergey Kozlov appeared as a “manual” expert of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office in landmark criminal cases: in the Kursk case and in the criminal case of the K-159 nuclear submarine, which drowned during towing in 2003.

In the Kursk case, it was Sergei Kozlov (in 2000, the chief navigator of the Russian Navy) who “helped” the investigation to draw the absurd conclusion that the SOS knocks, which were recorded in the area of ​​​​the boat sinking until the evening of August 14, “came from the underwater part surface ship unidentified by the investigation. It was Sergei Kozlov who determined the bearing of the signals and gave the investigation the necessary expert opinion that the SOS knocks DO NOT COINCIDENT with the place of the flooding of the Kursk. The examinations of Kozlov and the chief forensic expert of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Viktor Kolkutin, who, contrary to all the law of forensic medicine, established that the submariners in the 9th compartment died 8 hours after the explosions on the boat, that is, BEFORE the search and rescue operation was announced, formed the basis for the decision of the investigation to terminate the Kursk case. The case was dismissed due to the absence of those responsible for the death of the boat and the fact that 23 submariners who remained alive in the 9th compartment were not saved.

In the K-159 case, Sergei Kozlov also became one of the most important experts for the prosecution. The commander of the Northern Fleet, Gennady Suchkov, was blamed for the death of the boat and members of the towing crew. The accusation was based mainly on the commission's comprehensive organizational and tactical expertise. The selection of experts for this examination, on behalf of the Chief Military Prosecutor Savenkov, was personally carried out by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Kuroyedov. Among the experts, all the same ones especially showed themselves: Viktor Kolkutin established the exact cause of death of seven crew members who drowned along with the boat and were not raised to the surface (which in itself is a new sensational word in forensic medicine) and Sergey Kozlov, who accused Suchkov "of non-salvation" of people. Although the command to leave the boat, including personally from the commander of the fleet, Admiral Suchkov, came to the commander of the boat, Sergei Lappa, several times. He didn't react. According to the only surviving crew member Tsibulsky, K-159 commander Sergei Lappa, he saw in the sixth compartment, wrapped in a blanket and indifferently watching the emergency. As a result, only three crew members climbed from the compartments of the boat to the bridge, none of them could properly put on and fix the life jacket on themselves.

With the current defendant Sergei Kozlov and Viktor Kolkutin, who almost repeated his fate (as a result of a series of high-profile scandals, he was forced to resign from the post of head of the Russian Center for Forensic Medical Examination in 2010), Novaya Gazeta is associated with several lawsuits. We wrote extensively about the Kursk case and about the role of expert opinions that led to the inglorious end of the investigation. In response, lawsuits were initiated against us to protect the honor, dignity and business reputation of experts and investigators in the Kursk case. We were able to win the first lawsuit in the Basmanny Court, but then the Moscow City Court overturned the judge's decision, and Judge Stanislav Voznesensky was fired. Subsequent legal proceedings ended in favor of the honor, dignity and business reputation (!) of Viktor Kolkutin and Sergei Kozlov. To date, the European Court has communicated both Novaya Gazeta's complaints in the Kursk case against domestic "basman justice". Very soon we expect that Strasbrug will make a fair decision on them. Because "for some reason, the truth then triumphs ... But it certainly triumphs."