Russian Fleet Couldn’t Rescue Sailors in the Event of Another Kursk Disaster in the Arctic, Lawyer for Families of Those who Died 25 Years Ago Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 12 – Twenty-five years ago, the Russian submarine Kursk sank in the Arctic Sea and all 118 of those aboard were lost. Putin turned down Western offers of help after his naval commanders assured him that Russian ships could do the job. But that turned out not to be true, and both Putin and the navy simply wanted to keep NATO ships out of the area.

            After the disaster, Putin promised that the Russian navy would be modernized and that no such disasters would ever happen again. But Boris Kuznetsov, a lawyer for the families of those who died in the Kursk disaster, says that despite massive investments in the Russian navy, the Kremlin leader’s claim isn’t true either (pointmedia.io/story/689b0499e25aea416748a889).

            Russia has built two new rescue ships, the lawyer says; but they can function only in the Pacific. They lack the ability to function in the north because of ice there. Consequently, if another Kursk-like disaster were to occur, Moscow would be in no better position to save the men on board.

            Kuznetsov says that the current situation is the result not only of Moscow’s focus on building more ships rather than saving its own men but also of its failure to do even the minimum to be in a position to save the latter when, as is almost certainly likely to be the case, another disaster strikes.