A senior Russian official said Monday atomic-powered submarine could carry nuclear weapons when it was invaded by a fire during repairs at a shipyard in december.
The authorities initially said that all nuclear weapons on board the submarine Yekaterinburg had fired well before the fire broke out on 29 december and there was no risk of radioactive spills.
Last week, respected Russian magazine Vlast quoted naval sources said that the submarine was 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four warheads wear off during the fire by welding sparks.
On Monday, said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the defense industry that for 1986, five years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the elimination of weapons is not necessary during minor repairs.
"Was it such a repair that was performed in Yekaterinburg, so they are removing torpedoes and ballistic missiles is required?" Rogozin told reporters, without answering this question directly.
But he added: "It was not a medium repair when a boat enters the medium, the capital repairs, of course, far removed when a boat goes in and they say we have some small problem, it is never removed. "
The fire started when welding sparks ignited wooden scaffolding around the 18,200-ton submarine in the harbor Roslyakovo, 1.500 km (900 miles) north of Moscow and one of the major shipyards used by the Russian Northern Fleet.
The rubber coating of the submarine then fire, sending flames and black smoke over the ship. Firefighters fought the flames for a day and a night of partial sinking of the submarine to the flames, according to media reports.
Vlast said Russia was "on the brink of the greatest disaster since the time of Chernobyl," a reference to the 1986 explosion and fire at a nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine.
It is said that Yekaterinburg sailed to the fleet of gun shop immediately after the fire, an unusual trip for a damaged submarine contains no weapons.
Rogozin, who in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur was for meetings on defense and military issues, chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said that federal investigators were expected to report on their probe into the fire on Friday.
"We do not doubt, in the future, about what kind of repairs unloading of weapons and what kind of repair is not," said Rogozin.
Last week, respected Russian magazine Vlast quoted naval sources said that the submarine was 16 R-29 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each armed with four warheads wear off during the fire by welding sparks.
On Monday, said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the defense industry that for 1986, five years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the elimination of weapons is not necessary during minor repairs.
"Was it such a repair that was performed in Yekaterinburg, so they are removing torpedoes and ballistic missiles is required?" Rogozin told reporters, without answering this question directly.
But he added: "It was not a medium repair when a boat enters the medium, the capital repairs, of course, far removed when a boat goes in and they say we have some small problem, it is never removed. "
The fire started when welding sparks ignited wooden scaffolding around the 18,200-ton submarine in the harbor Roslyakovo, 1.500 km (900 miles) north of Moscow and one of the major shipyards used by the Russian Northern Fleet.
The rubber coating of the submarine then fire, sending flames and black smoke over the ship. Firefighters fought the flames for a day and a night of partial sinking of the submarine to the flames, according to media reports.
Vlast said Russia was "on the brink of the greatest disaster since the time of Chernobyl," a reference to the 1986 explosion and fire at a nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine.
It is said that Yekaterinburg sailed to the fleet of gun shop immediately after the fire, an unusual trip for a damaged submarine contains no weapons.
Rogozin, who in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur was for meetings on defense and military issues, chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said that federal investigators were expected to report on their probe into the fire on Friday.
"We do not doubt, in the future, about what kind of repairs unloading of weapons and what kind of repair is not," said Rogozin.
