CLEARING THE SUBMARINE TO TAKE AT LEAST THREE MONTHS
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, November 2, 2001, p. 4
To clear the submarine completely, it would take three months in the least, said Admiral Vladimir Kuroedov, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. Now when almost no seawater, which served as a conserving agent for the bodies, is left inside the submarine, people have to hurry and hope for the cold, which would permit preserving the remains of the submariners.
Fifty-three bodies of crewmembers have already been found aboard the Kursk, 39 of them have been identified. The process of identification is slower now: only body parts are left on board the submarine, and it is impossible to determine to whom they belong without genetic testing.
The work of unloading the Granit cruise missiles continues in accordance with the schedule. Each of the 22 missiles will be dismantled at the Nerpa ship-repairing plant in Snezhnogorsk after warheads are separated and mid-flight engines are unloaded. By the way, the Kursk will be cut apart in the same manner. The timetable of this operation is unknown thus far.
THE DUMA SURRENDERS VLADIMIR GOLOVLEV TO THE PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE
Izvestia, November 2, 2001, p. 2
Yesterday Duma deputies restriced the parliamentary immunity of their colleague Vladimir Golovlev, a deputy of the URF faction. Overall, 387 deputies (with the required vote of 226) voted in favor of relieving deputy chairman of the budget committee Vladimir Golovlev of his parliamentary immunity, with two opposed and no abstentions. On Wednesday, the Duma fell 13 votes short of consenting to initiation of criminal proceedings. Yury Biryukov, senior deputy prosecutor general, said that his department increased demands for receiving consent for the arrest of Golovlev. However, yesterday his parliamentary immunity was still limited. From now on, he can be questioned, but cannot be imprisoned.
ANOTHER TU-154 PLANE DOWN IN THE CRIMEA – IN A COMPUTER SIMULATOR
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, November 2, 2001, p. 7
An investigation experiment of clarifying the reasons for the crash of a Tu-154 airliner belonging to Sibir Airlines and flying to Novosibirsk from Tel Aviv when it crashed into the Black Sea on October 4, started yesterday at the Opuk space ground in the Crimea. Russian and Ukrainian commissions for investigating the reasons of the plane’s crash decided to model the situation, which arose in the skies on October 4 with the accuracy to a second. An exact copy of the crashed Tu-154 liner followed the same route as the crashed airliner did. At the same time, all the equipment pertaining to the S-200 antiaircraft missile defense system was also placed just like it had been on October 4, whereas the launch of the Ukrainian missile, which hit the plane, was simulated on a computer.
Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo chairman of the commission for establishing the reasons of the plane crash, arrived in the Crimea to monitor the experiment, which will last three days, within November 1-3. If secretary of the Russian Security Council only has a couple of days to make the final conclusions on results of the commission’s work (he was entrusted with completing the investigation by November 4), his Ukrainian counterpart Yevgeny Marchuk has two weeks in store. However, already yesterday, while meeting Vladimir Rushailo at the airport, Marchuk stated that the Ukrainian side was viewing the only theory of the disaster – the plane was struck a S-200 missile, which had been launched by an air defense missile system during the military exercises of the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces. As Marchuk said, the investigation experiment was made to “ascertain how exactly it had happened.”
After the investigation experiment, which includes various detection examinations besides repeating the tragic situation, is over, on November 3 Vladimir Rushailo will fly for Kiev to familiarize members of the Ukrainian government commission for investigating the reasons for the Tu-154 airplane’s crash with conclusions made by the Russian experts. This very day Marchuk and Rushailo will report about the work the commission accomplished to Leonid Kuchma.
