Kremlin says details of sub fire that killed 14 ‘top secret’
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The Kremlin on Wednesday said details of a fire that killed 14 crew on a deep-water submersible will not be made public because they include classified information.
The seamen died on Monday in Russia’s territorial waters in the country’s far-north, but the disaster was only made public Tuesday.
Officials have given little information about the vessel or the circumstances of the accident, with local media reporting the ship was a secretive nuclear-powered mini-submarine.
The defence ministry said the 14 crew were killed by inhaling poisonous fumes after a fire broke out on a “scientific research deep-sea submersible” studying the sea floor.
However the Novaya Gazeta newspaper cited sources as saying that the accident took place on an AS-12 nuclear mini-submarine, which is capable of going to extreme depths.
The presence of many senior ranking officers on board could suggest the submarine was not on an ordinary assignment.
President Vladimir Putin has ordered a full investigation into what he called a “tragedy”.
He appointed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to travel to Severomorsk, the restricted-access military port in the Russian Arctic and direct the probe.
During a meeting with Shoigu Tuesday, Putin said the submarine in question was “not an ordinary vessel.”
