Russian officials said in Saturday press conference in Moscow that they could not provide direct evidence that the Kursk nuclear submarine had collided with an underwater object before it sank, but mentioned a lot of indirect evidence.
"There is no direct evidence of a collision, but as for indirect evidence, there is quite a lot," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who is in charge of the Kursk investigation, told a Saturday press conference here.
This remark echoed a Saturday report of the Izvestia newspaper,which quoted a senior navy official as saying that the sinking of the Kursk may be the result of a collision with another underwater object.
"A mass of indirect indications" had showed that "there was another underwater object in the immediate vicinity of the accident-stricken Kursk," Vice Admiral Mikhail Motsak, chief of staff of the Northern Fleet, told Izvestia.
Klebanov said he could not make sure there was a collision, but noted "time will tell if the indirect evidence is showing the truth."
Asked when the final conclusion will be published, Klebanov said it "will be available when it is available." "We have received enough additional material...everything is necessary for a new stage of analysis," he said.
According to Motsak, the surface ship Peter the Great, which rushed to the sinking site after the Kursk tragedy, registered a nearby object with its hydroacoustic devices.
On the evening of August 13, 2000, the day after the Kursk sank,Russian aircraft spotted fuel bubbles about 18 miles northwest of the sinking site.
Motsak said Russian anti-submarine airplanes then spotted a submarine was leaving the Barents Sea. And on the next day, when the airplanes tried to confirm the location of the submarine, "our hydroacoustic buoys was deliberately jammed on all channels by our 'friends' from NATO."
It was a mistake of the navy that considered their only main task was to locate the Kursk to the rescue service, while neglecting the tracking of a second underwater object, he added.
However, the admiral stressed what he was talking about was his personal opinion, not an official viewpoint.
The Kursk, one of Russia's most modern nuclear submarine, exploded and sank in August 2000 during naval maneuvers, killing its entire crew of 118 men.
The ill-fated vessel was raised from the 100-meter-deep seabed in October in an unprecedented salvage operation to help investigation of the tragedy and allow for proper burial of the sailor's remains.
(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2001)
