Ilya Klebanov, Russian Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, said in St. Petersburg on Tuesday that the government would make a final verdict on the cause of the Kursk disaster in the near future, Itar-tass news agency reported.
An operation to salvage fragments of Kursk's first compartment is being done in the Barents Sea and the results of the operation will finally confirm the tragedy's causes, said Klebanov, who is in charge of the Kursk investigation.
The Kursk, one of Russia's largest and most modern submarines, exploded and sank during exercises in August 2000, killing all 118people aboard. The bulk of its wreckage was lifted last year, but its badly damaged bow was left on the sea floor out of fear it would destabilize the salvage operation.
Itar-tass reports from the Arctic port of Murmansk said the navy's salvage team had resumed its operation Tuesday to raise fragments of the Kursk's bow, which was disrupted by a gale.
The recovered wreckage, including a part of a torpedo tube, would be brought to St. Petersburg shortly, Interfax quoted the navy's deputy chief, Rear Adm. Mikhail Barskov as saying.
"We will work until we retrieve as many pieces of the first section as we can," Barskov said.
He said fragments of the hull and torpedo tube could shed more light on the causes of the disaster.
( June 5, 2002)
