From the BBC:
The flagship of Russia’s northern fleet has been ordered back to port as it is too dangerous to be at sea, says Russia’s naval commander-in-chief.
Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov said the nuclear cruiser Peter the Great “could go sky high at any minute”.
He said this was especially dangerous as the ship was equipped with a nuclear reactor.
But correspondents say the move could be linked to disagreements between senior naval officers.
It could also be part of a campaign for greater funding from government.
Admiral Kuroyedov’s remarks are thought to be aimed at the ship’s captain, Rear-Admiral Vladimir Kasatonov.
The captain’s uncle, himself a retired admiral, was recently highly critical of Admiral Kuroyedov in a court hearing on the sinking of a nuclear submarine last year in which nine sailors died.
The 40-year-old K-159 submarine sank in the Barents Sea in bad weather on 30 August as it was being towed to a scrapyard.
Reactor worries
The Northern Fleet has been plagued by a series of such incidents beginning with the Kursk submarine disaster in the same sea in August 2000.
Admiral Kuroyedov said he had ordered the ship back to port after an inspection during naval exercises in the Barents Sea last Wednesday.
“In those places on board where the admirals actually go, everything’s fine, but where they don’t go, everything’s in such a state it could go sky high at any minute,” he said. “And by that I also mean the state of the nuclear reactor.
“It is this attitude to the upkeep of their ships on the part of commanders that is leading to the collapse of the fleet.”
The Peter the Great is normally based near the northern port of Murmansk, but the ship’s current location has not been specified.
By: google - 23rd March 2004 at 15:13
Pity. Peter the Great is such a beautiful ship.
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March 23, 2004 at 12:47 pm