Kursk Team Begins Search for Clues

Russia’s top prosecutor led investigators onto the deck of the nuclear submarine Kursk on Tuesday as they began the search for clues as to what caused the vessel to explode and sink more than a year ago.

Crew members on the barge that lifted the submarine from the Barents Sea floor and towed it to a floating dock in Roslyakovo, near the Arctic port of Murmansk, lowered wreaths into the water to honor the Kursk’s 118 dead.

With the sub fully out of the water, Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov, top navy officials and a team of about 40 investigators observed a moment of silence before stepping onto the deck. The first on board was Lt. Gleb Lyachin, the son of the Kursk’s late commander, Gennady Lyachin.

Navy officials have said they expect to find only 30 to 40 bodies when they enter the submarine. They believe the rest were pulverized by the explosion. Twelve bodies were recovered by divers when the Kursk was still on the sea floor.

Investigators who enter the vessel will have to wear protective masks, since toxic gases have built up in the sub during its 14 months on the sea bottom after it sank during naval maneuvers in August 2000, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Deputy Prime Minister Ilya I. Klebanov, who is responsible for the Kursk salvage operation, said it would take up to three days to dry out the submarine for an internal inspection, the Interfax news agency reported.

Many Russian and foreign experts have said the initial explosion was sparked by an internal malfunction, but government officials say the Kursk may have collided with another vessel or a World War II mine.

The submarine was raised and towed to shore in a risky, complicated operation that cost the Russian government $65 million.

The sub’s first compartment, where the torpedoes were located and which may contain vital clues to the cause of the disaster, was cut off and left at the bottom of the sea for collection next year if possible.