Pyotr Veliky cruiser to lie up for preventive maintenance

The check made by the Main Staff of the Navy of Russia revealed a number of substantial shortcomings on the flagship of the Northern Fleet, the Pyotr Veliky heavy nuclear-powered missile-carrying cruiser, a source in the Northern Fleet's Staff said on Monday.

"A week ago a commission of the Main Staff of the Navy under deputy commander of the Navy Mikhail Zakharenko made a check on the Pyotr Veliky to do away with the defects earlier noted by the Navy's Commander-in-Chief. Substantial shortcomings were revealed in the ship organization," the agency's source said.

He noted that the defects concern the organization of service on the ship and of special training. Furthermore, quite a number of the ship's spaces are maintained with a gross violation of the Navy Regulations, the daily routine is upset, and the action stations and service spaces do not meet the requirements set.

The source emphasized that the reactor compartment is the only space to be maintained up to standard.

"The Pyotr Veliky is currently undergoing a dock operation and is to lie up for one month for preventive maintenance," the source said.

According to him, in the course of the preventive maintenance the ship's commanders will have time to establish elementary order in the questions of the duty-watch service and of compliance with the Navy rules.

In the Northern Fleet's Staff they stressed that the flagship must meet the highest requirements.

Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Admiral Kuroyedov earlier made a scandalous statement the sense of which boiled down to the idea that the Pyotr Veliky can blow up at any moment. The Commander-in-Chief later stated, however, that he had been misunderstood.