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Prime Minister says radiation normal around sunken submarine |
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August 26, 2000
MOSCOW (AP) - The level of radiation in the area where a nuclear submarine exploded and sank this month is normal and there is no cause for alarm, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Friday, according to a report. Concern has been high that radiation could leak from the submarine Kursk, which sank Aug. 12, but officials in Russia and in neighboring Norway have not reported any increase. "The background radiation condition is normal now and we have no anxiety," Kasyanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency while in Sarov, where he was visiting one of Russia's main nuclear research facilities. The Kursk, with 118 men aboard, was shattered by an explosion while taking part in naval exercises in the Barents Sea off Russia's northern coast. The cause of the explosion has not been determined. Some observers say the most likely reason was an internal malfunction and explosion in the submarine's torpedo compartment. However, top Russian officials say the submarine appears to have collided with something, possibly a foreign vessel. "We are now investigating more than 10 versions of the Kursk catastrophe, but I lean to the position that the tragedy occurred as the result of a collision with a foreign submarine," Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said Friday, according to Interfax. The United States and Britain have denied having any vessels nearby during the exercises. Norwegian divers who went to the wreck said they did not get close enough to the bow to have seen signs of a collision. The sinking of one of Russia's most modern submarines and the government's slow and confused response has shocked and angered people throughout the country. President Vladimir Putin has been a focus of the criticism because he remained on vacation during the first days of the crisis. But Putin later held a long and emotional meeting with relatives of the Kursk's sailors and on Wednesday said on state television that he felt "responsible and guilty" for the tragedy - an unusual statement in a country accustomed to an authoritarian political style. |