The Kursk Tragedy Continues

For example, the Russian government took advantage of the time to launch its anti-Western propaganda campaign in an attempt to consolidate Russian society by whipping up anti-Americanism among the people.

In this campaign Moscow’s leaders are actively using the tragedy of the Russian nuclear attack submarine Kursk, which plunged to the bottom of the Barents Sea on Aug. 12, killing all 118 men aboard.

In recent weeks Russian officials have tried several times to promote the idea that the Kursk sank because of a collision with a mysterious "hostile foreign vessel," presumably a U.S. submarine that was on an intelligence-gathering mission in the area of the disaster.

Russian officials said they had "serious video proof" that the Kursk sank after smashing into a foreign vessel. "We found a large dent in the boat's two sections and some very serious scratches, which tell us that something scraped against the boat after the collision," Deputy Prime minister Ilya Klebanov said after chairing a government inquiry into the tragedy.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the video evidence and, as usual, remained unable to furnish any details of the disaster. Previously, other Russian officials, including Minister of Defense Marshal Sergeev, General Staff Chief General Kvashnin, and some Russian Navy commanders echoed the same statements.

Accusations against a "hostile foreign vessel" came at a time when American and other Western experts were trying to support an operation planned for next summer to raise the submarine from the Arctic seabed. The Kursk, which weighs an estimated 25,000 tons after taking on water, is to be salvaged by an international consortium consisting of Russian, U.S., Dutch and Belgian specialists.

Russian military and other officials also failed to disclose any details of the costly operation, which experts warn is fraught with peril because of the possibility that the crippled nuclear-powered ship's body might crack open and pollute the seawater with nuclear waste.

However, it would be very difficult to accept the assumptions of Russian officials about involvement of a "hostile foreign vessel." Many experts, including Russians, believe that the tragedy occurred because of a still-unexplained explosion of a torpedo, being launched during naval exercises, that trigged a massive blast of other torpedoes and explosives inside the submarine's munitions compartment.

Experts are also looking into two other theories about the disaster – that the Kursk hit a World War II-era underwater mine, or that the submarine was sunk by the new Russian nuclear cruiser Peter the Great, the largest of its kind in the world, which last August took part in the same naval exercises as the Kursk.

Recently the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta quoted an unidentified officer from the Peter the Great, who said that during the exercises, in violation of general Navy regulations, the nuclear cruiser tested a new type of weapon – a hybrid combination of missile and torpedo, or missile-torpedo.

Launched as a missile, this weapon flies to the target area and plunges into the water, where the it opens its warhead and releases the "smart" torpedo inside, which then searches for a target and pursues and attacks it.

Instead of firing test or non-combat missile-torpedoes, navy commanders decided to save time and resources and used fully armed combat weapons in navel exercises, the Russian press revealed.

The Peter the Great and the Kursk had been in the same operational area, where experts organized tests of the new weapon.

The Peter the Great launched several missile-torpedoes, one at a time, and the cruiser's crew members detected one and, sometime later, another and more powerful underwater explosion.

According to the Russian press, the Peter the Great’s commanders got the idea that they hit an American submarine on an intelligence mission in the area of the naval exercises, but were informed that the U.S. sub was damaged and lost some equipment at a much later time. When the cruiser's crew realized that they had attacked a Russian submarine, they quickly fled the area of the accident.

When the cruiser was ordered to help locate the missing Kursk, the ship sailed back to the area of the tragedy and, of course, was the first ship to locate the sunken submarine, according to Russian press reports. After returning to port, the cruiser's crew and civilian specialists began preparing themselves for jail; they bought out all the vodka in the town, but vodka didn't work in their case; they weren't able to drown their guilt in alcohol.

The cruiser's crew relaxed later after being told that the government doesn't want to make them responsible for the disaster. The sailors were also told that the navy officials were ordered by Moscow to promote the idea that the Kursk was sunk by a "hostile foreign vessel." "We got killed," the Russian media reported were the first few words from the letter of the Kursk's lieutenant Kolesnikov, whose body with several others was recovered later by Norwegian divers. But military officials never made these words public.

The press also said that contrary to the official information, some submarine crew members were still alive three days after disaster, and the delay in the rescue operation was connected with Moscow’s intention not to have any witnesses of the tragedy left alive.

These is no doubt that the decision for falsification was made at the top level of the government and personally by President Vladimir Putin, who didn't interrupt his vacation and requested international help in the rescue operation only after it became absolutely clear that everybody aboard the Kursk was dead.

If these allegations are true, the Kremlin will do everything to confirm their accusations that the Kursk sunk after colliding with a "hostile foreign vessel." And, of course, Russia's special services will have enough capabilities and plenty of time before the Kursk can be raised from the Barents Sea next summer, for planting dents and other "evidence" of "collision" on the body of the submarine.

With very limited or no reaction from the Clinton administration, the Kremlin is promoting new and mostly artificial anti-Western propaganda. As a result of this propaganda, instead of dealing with the pro-American Russia of eight years ago, the U.S. could soon be facing an anti-American Russia, and the new people in a new White House will face the tough job of trying to prevent this possible development.