President Putin: cut short his holiday
Aug. 19th, 2012 03:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bogdan_63His decision to fly back to the capital coincided with new evidence of the force of the explosions which punched a huge hole in the vessel's hull, sending it to the bottom of the Barents Sea a week ago.
The second of two blasts measured by a Norwegian institute that morning was equivalent to the power of up to two tons of TNT, experts from the Norwegian Seismic Array said. It occurred two minutes and 15 seconds after a first, smaller explosion.
Leaked Russian navy figures yesterday suggested that no more than 36 sailors among the 118 on board had any chance of surviving the blasts. Capt Richard Sharpe, the editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that no one forward of the reactor compartment survived. Flooding was probably catastrophic right up to the reactor compartment."
Mr Putin said yesterday that his defence minister, Igor Sergeyev, had told him just hours after the explosion that the chances of saving the crew were "extremely small". Chastened by the fiercest criticism of his conduct since his election, Mr Putin said that his first reaction on hearing that a submarine was trapped on the seabed above the Arctic Circle was to fly to the disaster scene. He decided not to, however, because his presence would hinder, not help, the rescue.
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The second of two blasts measured by a Norwegian institute that morning was equivalent to the power of up to two tons of TNT, experts from the Norwegian Seismic Array said. It occurred two minutes and 15 seconds after a first, smaller explosion.
Leaked Russian navy figures yesterday suggested that no more than 36 sailors among the 118 on board had any chance of surviving the blasts. Capt Richard Sharpe, the editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that no one forward of the reactor compartment survived. Flooding was probably catastrophic right up to the reactor compartment."
Mr Putin said yesterday that his defence minister, Igor Sergeyev, had told him just hours after the explosion that the chances of saving the crew were "extremely small". Chastened by the fiercest criticism of his conduct since his election, Mr Putin said that his first reaction on hearing that a submarine was trapped on the seabed above the Arctic Circle was to fly to the disaster scene. He decided not to, however, because his presence would hinder, not help, the rescue.
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