Kursk victims remembered
Russian military and civilian officials unveiled a bronze monument to the crew of the Kursk nuclear submarine in Moscow today, marking the second anniversary of the explosion that sank the vessel.
The crewmen’s relatives and other mourners gathered in churches and cemeteries across the country to pay tribute to the 118 seamen who were killed, while Russia’s Northern Fleet lowered its flags to half-mast.
In the arctic village of Vidyayevo, from which the Kursk departed on its final, doomed voyage, officials unveiled a black granite memorial, and local residents threw red carnations into the murky sea.
At the Moscow ceremony, a brass band played as naval officers laid giant wreaths near a statue of a huge bronze sailor standing over a submarine plunging into the ocean depths.
The new monument, in the courtyard of the city’s Armed Forces Museum, was dedicated to those “killed carrying out their military duty”.
Galina Loginova, whose son Sergei was one of the sailors who died on the Kursk, stood nearby with a handful of carnations. She was one of about a dozen family members who attended the ceremony.
“We are satisfied with what they have done here, so it all won’t be forgotten,” Loginova said, fighting back tears. “But we are not satisfied with the official account of what happened.”
The Kursk - one of Russia’s largest and most advanced submarines - was felled by two powerful explosions during exercises in the Barents Sea.
Russia’s top prosecutor said last month that a leaky torpedo propellant - hydrogen peroxide - caused the explosion, closing the books on the lengthy official investigation.
An international salvage operation last year recovered the bodies of 115 crew members.
