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Russian Navy Says Torpedo Explosion Caused Kursk Sub Disaster
Murmansk (AFP) Feb 18, 2002 Russia's navy chief gave the firmest indication to date Monday that an explosion of a torpedo destroyed the Kursk nuclear submarine, killing all 118 men on board. But Vladimir Kuroyedov was cautious not to pronounce a torpedo explosion as the sole, definitive cause of the undersea tragedy. He said preliminary findings showed the fuel used for the torpedoes on the Kursk was too volatile. The fuel somehow caught fire, causing the deadly series of ammunition explosions that sank Russia's most modern nuclear-powered submarine on August 12, 2000, he said. "We no longer have secrets about what happened on board the Kursk," said Kuroyedov, who was in Murmansk to receive the official report on the disaster from navy investigators. "The confidence of scientists, constructors and the navy leadership in the fuel which was used in the torpedoes was not justified," he told a joint news conference with Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov. In a separate announcement, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had stripped Ilya Klebanov, who led a chorus of officials arguing the Kursk sank after being hit by a NATO spy boat, from his post as deputy prime minister. Analysts interpreted the moved as a sign that Putin was assigning Klebanov public blame for his handling of the disaster and the ensuing inquiry. Certain independent investigators from the Russian parliament have long believed the Kursk sank because the navy was using a cheap fuel alternative that had been ruled as too dangerous by Western navies years earlier.
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