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Putin Thanks Participants in Kursk
By SARAH KARUSH
November 28, 2001
MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday thanked Russian and foreign participants in the complex operation to raise the wrecked nuclear submarine Kursk, saying they contended with both unprecedented technical demands and the nation's hopes.
``There were great, human expectations surrounding this,'' Putin said during a Kremlin meeting honoring senior navy officers, Russian and foreign diving crews and the Dutch consortium that led the salvage operation.
The Kursk's wreckage was raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea and brought ashore in October, more than a year after the submarine exploded and sank with 118 men aboard in a disaster that traumatized Russians.
The cause of the disaster remains under investigation.
``Each of the almost 3,000 Russian and foreign experts who took part was perfectly aware of the price of any mistake, even a minor one,'' said Putin, calling the effort ``an example of unique, international cooperation.''
The salvage operation, which cost an estimated $65 million, was unprecedented in naval history. The 18,000-ton Kursk not only was one of the world's largest submarines but also the only nuclear submarine ever salvaged.
Putin - criticized heavily for an apparently slow response to the Aug. 12, 2000, sinking - acknowledged that the decision to raise the submarine had been controversial.
``The navy officers tried to dissuade me. Members of the commission can remember the meeting where not one person was in favor of it,'' Putin said, referring to the commission created after the disaster to evaluate the government's next move.
For Russians, ``the lifting of the Kursk was not just a state duty but first of all a moral duty.''
Putin promised that the Russian government would draw ``the necessary conclusions'' from the tragedy.
``We need to ensure safe conditions for sailors and to establish a reliable search-and-rescue service,'' he said. ``The tragic experience of the Kursk and the experience gained during the salvage operation should trigger efforts to create new and more exact international standards for ship construction.''
Russian officials say the disaster was caused by the explosion of a practice torpedo, but they have not determined what triggered that blast.
On Wednesday, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda cited a Russian arms expert as saying radio transmissions intercepted from the Kursk showed the ship's captain saying there was a dangerous torpedo aboard and asking for permission to get rid of it.
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