MOSCOW – The fire safety system on a brand-new Russian nuclear submarine accidentally turned on as the sub was being tested in the Sea of Japan, spewing a gas that suffocated 20 people and sent 21 others to the hospital, officials said Sunday.
The Russian Navy said the submarine itself was not damaged in Saturday’s accident and returned to its base on Russia’s Pacific coast under its own power Sunday. The accident also did not pose any radiation danger, the navy said.
Yet it was Russia’s worst naval accident since torpedo …

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — An accident aboard a nuclear-powered Russian navy submarine doing a test run in the Pacific Ocean killed more than 20 people Sunday, the navy said.
The nuclear reactor aboard the submarine was operating normally and radiation levels were normal, navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said.

Two former British military officers are expected to give crucial evidence against Georgia when an international inquiry is convened to establish who started the country’s bloody five-day war with Russia in August.
Ryan Grist, a former British Army captain, and Stephen Young, a former RAF wing commander, are said to have concluded that, before the Russian bombardment began, Georgian rockets and artillery were hitting civilian areas in the breakaway region of South Ossetia every 15 or 20 seconds.

Russian investigators say they are trying to identify the woman they suspect launched a suicide attack on a minibus in the North Caucasus.
Twelve people were killed in Thursday’s attack in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia. Officials believe one of them was a female suicide bomber.

MOSCOW, (UPI) — Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Georgia has deployed troops along its border.
Representive Anvar Azimov said Georgia was engaging in military activities in areas bordering on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Interfax news agency reported Saturday.

KISH ISLAND (Iran), October 29 (RIA Novosti) – Iran is planning to manufacture over 50 Russian-designed Ka-32 helicopters under a production license, an Iranian aircraft industry official said on Wednesday.
Ka-32 is a civilian version of the Russian Ka-27 military helicopter developed by the Kamov design bureau.

A Russian communist group has attacked the newest Bond girl, Olga Kurylenko, for her “moral and intellectual betrayal” in starring in a film about the “enemy of the Soviet people.”
Ukrainian-born Kurylenko, 28, stars in the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, alongside English actor Daniel Craig.

The Amur shipyard in Russia’s Far East said on Monday it had started sea trials of a newly built nuclear-powered attack submarine, which according to media reports may be leased to India.
The construction of the Akula II class Nerpa nuclear attack submarine started in 1991, but had been suspended for over a decade due to lack of funding. Akula II class vessels are considered the quietest and deadliest of Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines.

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) – Russian warships from the Pacific and Northern Fleets will conduct exercises in the Indian Ocean later this year, a Navy spokesman said on Saturday.
A group of Northern Fleet warships, led by the missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great), will go to the Indian Ocean after joint drills with the Venezuelan Navy in the Caribbean.

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Foreign Ministry denied on Friday claims by the U.S. defense secretary that large amounts of Russian nuclear weapons had been stolen or misplaced.
Speaking in Washington on Tuesday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Robert Gates expressed concern that some Russian nuclear weapons from the former Soviet arsenal may not be fully accounted for.
“I have fairly high confidence that no strategic or modern tactical nuclear weapons have leaked beyond Russian borders,” Gates said.