Russian Divers Find Note on Kursk Sailor's Body, Discounting Official Assurances that Sailors Died Quickly
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: You may remember several weeks ago, that Russian submarine that went down at the bottom of the Barents Sea. Well, officials now say they have uncovered evidence that shows some of the sailors did survive the initial blast. CNN's Steve Harrigan now from the Russian capital with more.</s>STEVE HARRIGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than two months after the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents sea, the last word goes to Lieutenant Dimitri Kolesnikov, whose body was pulled from the wreckage by Russian divers. A letter found on the lieutenant's body contradicts the official claim that all 118 seamen perished within minutes of two massive explosions on board.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears from the note that the majority of the personnel of the sixth, seventh and eighth compartments went over to the ninth, which served as a refuge. Besides, the note says that maybe two or three people will try to emerge from the sunken submarine through the rescue hatch of the ninth compartment. As you know, this attempt failed, perhaps because it was flooded.</s>HARRIGAN: Twenty-three men may have struggled for some hours as the submarine slowly filled with water. The news has reopened a painful wound for relatives and many Russians convinced the government mishandled rescue efforts and misled the people. It was a team of Norwegian divers who finally opened the hatch on the Kursk nine days after it went down to discover there were no survivors. Salvage operations have been slowed by winter storms. It took five days to cut one hole in the thick hole of the Kursk. The divers may have to cut six more to search every compartment. Initial efforts succeeded in bringing four bodies to the surface along with a note from a dead man written in darkness on the bottom of the sea.</s>HARRIGAN: Bill, inside that note, there was no hint about what caused this catastrophe. Russian naval officials still say that there was a collision with a submarine from another nation but Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is determined that all facts will be known from a lengthy investigation that is going on right now -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: Steve, again, there was a lot of anger from the families of the victims on board that submarine. Any reaction thus far from those people today?</s>HARRIGAN: Certainly what happened today just rekindles all of the old bad feelings that we have seen now go on for weeks. We have seen pictures of this lieutenant's wife on Russian state television crying. Really, it rekindles this emotional pain this mourning, now, that's going on for weeks. Russian officials thought finally they were getting a handle on this. They were making a valiant effort in bad weather conditions to recover these bodies and now this note simply raises the question again, the question that has haunted the relatives: Could these men have been saved if timely action were taken? So a painful period now, once again, for the Russian people -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: An amazing twist in that story too. Steve Harrigan in Moscow. Steve, thanks.