Russian Deputies Demand "Truth" About Submarine Disaster
September 16, 2000 - 0:0
MOSCOW Deputies in the Russian Duma on Friday demanded to know the "truth" about the submarine disaster last month in which 118 men were killed, DPA said.
"The deputies want to know the truth," the deputy speaker of the Duma, Vladimir Lukin, said Friday. Lukin told ORT Television that some deputies wanted a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the disaster in the Barents Sea.
The head of the commission investigating the Kursk disaster, Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Klebanov, was due to brief the deputies on the investigation later in the day.
Russian officials maintain that the nuclear submarine sunk on August 12 after a collision with a foreign sub.
Western experts believe the Kursk was rocked by two explosions before it went down.
On Thursday, a Russian ex-naval officer investigating the incident said the Kursk was probably sunk by another Russian naval vessel.
Sergei Shenkov, chairman of the regional parliament in Far-Eastern Primorye and a member of a working group of the Russian Federal Council to investigate the loss of the Kursk, said that the available information indicated that the Kursk was sunk by a missile fired by the Russian cruiser Pyotr Veliki (Peter the Great).
Meanwhile, One of Russia's largest anti-submarine warships accidentally fired at a town on the Far East coast, Ria-Novosti cited the Pacific Fleet Press Service as saying Friday.
Nobody was wounded when the large-calibre shell was mistakenly fired by the Admiral Pantilev at the Slavyanka settlement in the Khasansk region on Thursday during a naval exercise, the fleet said in a statement as carried by AFP.
But the shell left a crater 1.5 meters (yards) deep after it exploded in marshy terrain 200 meters (yards) from Slavyanka.
The fleet denied reports in Russian media that the explosion had resulted in casualties, adding: "One local resident of advanced age suffered concussion." The press service blamed the Admiral Pantilev's gunners for the accident. On Thursday, a Russian lawmaker claimed the ill-fated Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank last month in mysterious circumstances with the loss of 118 crew, was probably destroyed by a misfired torpedo during naval wargames.
Sergei Zhekov, a member of a parliamentary probe into the August 12 disaster, said a Russian warship had launched five missiles in a mock attack on the Kursk, but only four had been found afterwards.
"The deputies want to know the truth," the deputy speaker of the Duma, Vladimir Lukin, said Friday. Lukin told ORT Television that some deputies wanted a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the disaster in the Barents Sea.
The head of the commission investigating the Kursk disaster, Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Klebanov, was due to brief the deputies on the investigation later in the day.
Russian officials maintain that the nuclear submarine sunk on August 12 after a collision with a foreign sub.
Western experts believe the Kursk was rocked by two explosions before it went down.
On Thursday, a Russian ex-naval officer investigating the incident said the Kursk was probably sunk by another Russian naval vessel.
Sergei Shenkov, chairman of the regional parliament in Far-Eastern Primorye and a member of a working group of the Russian Federal Council to investigate the loss of the Kursk, said that the available information indicated that the Kursk was sunk by a missile fired by the Russian cruiser Pyotr Veliki (Peter the Great).
Meanwhile, One of Russia's largest anti-submarine warships accidentally fired at a town on the Far East coast, Ria-Novosti cited the Pacific Fleet Press Service as saying Friday.
Nobody was wounded when the large-calibre shell was mistakenly fired by the Admiral Pantilev at the Slavyanka settlement in the Khasansk region on Thursday during a naval exercise, the fleet said in a statement as carried by AFP.
But the shell left a crater 1.5 meters (yards) deep after it exploded in marshy terrain 200 meters (yards) from Slavyanka.
The fleet denied reports in Russian media that the explosion had resulted in casualties, adding: "One local resident of advanced age suffered concussion." The press service blamed the Admiral Pantilev's gunners for the accident. On Thursday, a Russian lawmaker claimed the ill-fated Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank last month in mysterious circumstances with the loss of 118 crew, was probably destroyed by a misfired torpedo during naval wargames.
Sergei Zhekov, a member of a parliamentary probe into the August 12 disaster, said a Russian warship had launched five missiles in a mock attack on the Kursk, but only four had been found afterwards.