Allegations that new, cheap and dangerous torpedoes may have been the cause of the Kursk disaster have been removed from the website of Russia's official military newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star).
The report has been replaced by the version favoured by the naval authorities that the submarine was involved in a collision with an unidentified object.
In the original report Krasnaya Zvezda stated that underwater video evidence showed the Kursk's periscope and all its other telescopic equipment were in observation position.
This, the newspaper said, indicated that the submarine was operating at periscope depth when the incident occurred.
An incident which arose close to the surface required the captain to make a "crash dive", which caused the submarine to hit the sea bed very quickly, probably in about 15 seconds but possibly in less than 10 seconds.
Western sources, such as the Norwegian research vessel Mar jatta and the Norwegian seismic institute, were not the only ones to report two explosions at the scene. Krasnaya Zvezda reported that the blasts were also monitored by "sonic operators" of Russia's Northern Fleet.
All monitors reported the second blast to be considerably stronger than the first. According to Krasnaya Zvezda's report, the first blast may have been caused by the submarine's impact on the sea bed or by a torpedo's triggering device, while the second could have been the explosion of a torpedo inside the craft.
The report, monitored by the Norwegian environmental agency Bellona, went on to state that in January 1998 the Kursk was reequipped with new torpedoes at a military-industrial plant, Seve rodvinsk, near Archangel on the White Sea.
Quoting an un-named admiral of the Northern Fleet, the newspaper said that representatives of the submarine service tried to resist attempts to install the new torpedoes, claiming they were difficult to store and dangerous to handle.
The older torpedoes used in previous exercises utilised expensive batteries containing silver and were launched by pressurised air. The new version used liquid fuel and was launched by a trigger which produced gas to shoot the torpedo out of the vessel.
The Bellona agency has specialised in pollution caused by the Russian fleet due to the proximity of many Russian naval exercises to the Norwegian coast. It has had a number of its operatives based in Russia and one of them, the retired Capt Alexander Nikitin, has become a cause celebre.
Having reported to Bellona on the parlous state of nuclear reactors in the Northern Fleet, Capt Nikitin was charged with high treason and found guilty by a St Petersburg court.
He successfully petitioned to have the verdict overturned in the appeal court but the FSB, the internal secret police agency which replaced the KGB, appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
A verdict is expected next month.
