MURMANSK, December 6 (AVN) - The court of the Gadzhiyevo garrison in the northern Russian Murmansk region has sentenced an officer of the Pantera nuclear submarine to four years in prison and confiscation of property for theft, the Military News Agency learned on Monday.
Captain Anatoly Mikhailov, commander of the submarine's chemical service, was found guilty in stealing very expensive palladium powder from filtering clusters used in the air regeneration system. He took ashore 59 clusters and gave them to his accomplice, who extracted the palladium charge and sold it.
The investigation found out that Mikhailov's activities caused 2.2 million roubles (about 83,000 dollars) of damages to the Northern Fleet. Besides, they were dangerous for the submarine crew. The regeneration system is unable to maintain regular composition of the air without palladium charges, and crew members would have smothered if the submarine had put out to sea.