Anton Ponomarev: Russian Navy Command provokes speculation around the Kursk submarine

A scandal sprang up again around the tragedy that happened with the Kursk submarine. This time, the scandal was officially initiated by the Russian Navy

Senior officials of the Russian navy (vice-admiral Motsak, for example) have already released several statements revealing eye-opening facts and surprising assumptions. The naval command preferred not to react, but it was over today. The press-service of the Russian Navy command angrily rejected the article that was published “in one of the Russian newspapers.” Dmitry Vlasov, an unknown “expert," set out his views pertaining to the reasons of the Kursk tragedy in that article.

"Dmitry Vlasov’s name is not known to the navy and his personal views are based on fictitious data. We have known this position for a long time already: to slander the Russian Navy against the background of the tragedy that happened onboard the Kursk submarine. This position does not give credit the people who take this position. The publication of Dmitry Vlasov’s interview was dictated with a need not to let the subject of the sunken Kursk fade away, in spite of the fact that the Russian and Western societies receive as much information as possible about the process of the investigation,” – the statement from the press-service ran.

A very surprising rejection. The press-service is being indignant about the publication of the interview, given by unknown expert, but they did not mention the title of the newspaper where it was actually published. What does this phrase mean in the long run: “in one of the Russian newspapers?”

Let us unveil this secret. This is about today’s issue of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, in which an interview with Dmitry Vlasov, a scientist of armour, USSR State Prize winner, was published. It is very easy to find this out with the help of any search engine on the Internet.

As it became known afterwards, this interview was not the first given by Vlasov to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper regarding the same subject: the Kursk sub. And no one said Vlasov’s words were fictitious before.

Here is another interesting aspect. The article was published in the newspaper today,and the paper became available this morning. The press-service of the Russian Navy exercised incredible quickness, having released its statement today, around midday. Taking account of the fact it was only the first part of the interview published in the newspaper - the second one will be published only tomorrow. Maybe they could first read the entire article and then say something?

What was thr thing that Dmitry Vlasov said that got so much attention? If you read the article carefully, you will understand that he tried to restore the picture of the tragedy that happened onboard the Kursk August 12, 2000. The main reason of the catastrophe, as Vlasov believes, was the explosion of one of the torpedoes onboard the sub. The naval command has the same version too. So why did they get so mad? There is one thing that can be surely stated - the article in the Komsomolskaya Pravda was paid very much attention to. On the other hand, what is the best way to make as much readers as possible read a material in a newspaper? To reject this material, to say it was all rubbish.

On the photo: The Kursk submarine in Roslyakovo dock