Transcript of Putin's Press Conference

[Moderator] The last question from TV6.
 

Raising the submarine Kursk

[Question] Alim Yusupov, TV6. By the way, I would not like my question to be the last one because it is a bit sad. The operation to lift the Kursk submarine is starting now, a year after it sank. Perhaps, one could without emotions [changes tack] Perhaps, you have had enough time to think about what happened. How do you assess the actions of the military, of the government or perhaps some of your own actions now, a year later? Thank you.

[Putin] Indeed a year has passed. It was a very heavy blow to the morale, and [pauses] for the armed forces as a whole and for the country. And for me, too. My assessment of those events has not changed qualitatively. I think that rescuers did everything they could. If we take a stop-watch now and look at what was happening, we can state absolutely firmly and confidently that even if in the very first second - although it was impossible to do because it was not clear what was happening, the military could not understand straight away what was happening - even if in the very first second we turned to our foreign counterparts, any help would have come too late anyway. This is simply an elementary chronology of events. Time will tell.

Could the crew have been saved at all? They could, but only if the designers who developed this type of vessel in the 1980s had foreseen such a variant of the development of a catastrophe and corresponding means to effect a rescue. This simply was not foreseen by the designers.

What actually did exist as a means of rescue was available, was in a normal condition, and was used.

But I repeat, if they had used everything that was available from the very beginning, and if at the very same time they had appealed to foreign colleagues for help, the assistance would all the same not have been a success.

Therefore, we need to draw appropriate conclusions from this, both technical, technological and organizational. That goes without saying. But what I have told you is a fact.

As for my actions [at the time, Putin was in Sochi, southern Russia], in terms of PR, I should probably have returned to Moscow. From the point of view of keeping in touch, there was also no point in that because whether I am in Sochi or Moscow, I'm equally in touch, equally in touch with things. I received all the information in full and I could react to everything that was communicated to me. Therefore, in terms of keeping in touch, unfortunately, nothing could have been changed.

>From the point of view of publicizing events, perhaps a sort of special zeal could have been shown. But I repeat, unfortunately, it would not have fundamentally changed anything.

But today - and I first promised this at a meeting [with relatives of the crew] in Vedyayevo - that we would raise the vessel, and I think that we need to do this, and here is why: One of the problems that has arisen in recent years in Russia is a lack of trust in the activity of its leaders. This trust can only be restored if we do what we say we are going to do - in economics, finance, politics, everywhere. If we say we are going to do it, we must do it, and that is very important for society's health. Second, for environmental reasons, if it is possible to raise the reactor to the surface, then we should do so. The specialists say it is possible. We have analysed the situation many times, involving our foreign colleagues too, and our analyses show that it is possible.

Third, and no less important for the navy and the armed forces, we hope that after the sub is raised and while it is studied on the seabed we will gain additional data that will allow us to move closer to unravelling the reasons for the disaster, which, I repeat, is extremely important in my view. We were guided by all these considerations when we decided to raise the submarine, which, as you know, we have begun to do.

[Moderator] Ladies and gentleman, thank you for taking part.

[Putin] Let's have two or three more questions, then we'll wrap it up.

[laughter from hall]