OREANDA-NEWS. The former commander of the Northern Fleet Admiral Vyacheslav Popov said that the Kursk submarine sank after a collision with a NATO submarine. He claims that on the day of the incident, the SOS signal was not given by a Russian submarine, but by a foreign submarine that was nearby and was damaged. In an interview with Russian media RIA Novosti, Popov stated that he knows the name of the second submarine (with a 90% probability), but cannot disclose it.

The Admiral explained that the SOS signals were recorded and analyzed in an acoustic laboratory. Experts have found that they are served not by a person, but by a mechanism. «I emphasize that we do not have any such mechanisms or systems on our submarines to send this signal. Therefore, only a foreign submarine could serve it», Popov said.

The Kursk submarine sank in the Barents Sea 175 kilometers from Severomorsk at a depth of 108 meters. According to the official version, this was caused by the explosion of a torpedo on board and the subsequent detonation of ammunition during the exercises. All 118 crew members were killed.

After the death of the Kursk crew, various reasons were considered, including a collision with another submarine, but an official investigation concluded that the cause was the detonation of a torpedo in the bow compartment.