Posted on 07/04/2019 11:47:00 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Russian President Vladimir Putin disclosed on Thursday for the first time that a secret military submarine hit by a fatal fire three days ago was nuclear-powered, prompting Russia's defense minister to assure him its reactor had been safely contained.
Russian officials have faced accusations of trying to cover up the full details of the accident that killed 14 sailors as they were carrying out what the defense ministry called a survey of the sea floor near the Arctic.
Moscow's slow release of information about the incident has drawn comparisons with the opaque way the Soviet Union handled the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster, and another deadly submarine accident — the 2000 sinking of the nuclear-powered Kursk, which claimed 118 lives.
Russia, which says the details of the submarine involved in the latest accident are classified, said the fire took place on Monday, although it was only officially disclosed late on Tuesday.
Until Thursday there was no official word either on whether the vessel had a nuclear reactor, despite intense interest from authorities in neighboring Norway.
Putin, in a Kremlin meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, disclosed the fact that the submarine had been nuclear-powered by asking Shoigu about the reactor's condition after the deadly fire.
"The nuclear reactor on the vessel is completely isolated," Shoigu told Putin, according to a Kremlin transcript. "All the necessary measures were taken by the crew to protect the reactor which is in complete working order," he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at themoscowtimes.com ...
“Moscow’s slow release of information about the incident has drawn comparisons with the opaque way the Soviet Union handled the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster...”
Moscow Times is very much against Putin, so they’d say something like this. But think about it, we knew with hours that 14 Russians were dead on a top secret nuclear submarine...getting information that quickly about an accident like that would be impressive, even if it was our sub.
Our irresponsible media always calls them nuclear submarines, even when they are only nuclear powered.
There is a huge difference in a nuclear powered spy sub and a sub carrying nuclear armaments.
It’s a silly pet peeve of mine.
Does this move the timetable to the end of the world as we know it to.. 10.2 years?
After 5 days we know more about a Russian nuke spy sub than we do about the biggest mass-shooting in US history after two years.
YOU live in Russia but just celebrated your freedom, btw...
Exactly.
When put in the context of this being an incident involving a very important Russian sub, it actually seems as though the information has been coming out relatively quickly. But this is the Moscow Times, so the bias is to be expected.
The world’s first operational military submarine, the CSS Hunley, also carried the designation ‘AS-31.’
Whoever wrote the article probably some satirist looking for a laugh. I read in the U.S. Navy blog has different link article by Navy Times, it didn’t mention if a U.S. vessel was sunk.
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