ADMIRAL BALTIN: WE ARE UNLIKELY TO LEARN THE TRUTH OF THE KURSK TRAGEDY SHORTLY

Yesterday, our television showed a sensational footage – an unwrapped rostrum of the nuclear submarine Kursk resting on a sea bed. How long we have been waiting for this peace of truth! Unfortunately, it was not us, but journalists gathered at a special news conference in Hague that saw it first. At that, the logo “TsKB Rubin” could be clearly seen at the screen’s bottom. The question arises: how did the footage shot by divers from the research vessel Mstislav Keldysh got to Holland and why was it displayed there as an exclusive? The answer seems to be that the Rubin guys have trivially marketed the film abroad for a good amount of hard currency. I have called former Black See Fleet commander Eduard Baltin and asked him: “How do you assess what you have seen? Has anything become clear to you as to the causes of the catastrophe?” He answered as follows. “First, it is no doubt that the sub should be raised. It is also clear that Russia alone will be unable to do that. It is not only the Dutch that have a good experience in that, but also the Belgians. Second, the displayed material testifies to a powerful explosion having occurred in the fore-part sections. Everything possible exploded and caught fire there. The principal question is, however, what triggered this terrible explosion. I think that even if we have raised the Kursk, we will not get an answer. I felt a kind of underlying idea being present in what the general said. That is, the truth of the Kursk will never become known. That is why, rumours are mounting that the cruiser Petr Veliki could have caused a crash having inadvertently fired a couple of torpedoes to the site during the exercises.