A Barents Sea ceremony for the lost Kursk crew was cancelled on Wednesday at the request of the bereaved crew's relatives, NTV television reported.
The announcement was made shortly after President Vladimir Putin abruptly returned to Moscow early Wednesday after facing an hours-long grilling from some 500 relatives of the 118-man crew.
Witnesses said several women fainted during that meeting, held in the closed-off coastal port Vidyayevo.
A ceremony to be held at the site where the Kursk went down on August 12th had been scheduled for later on Wednesday.
It was widely assumed that Putin, who has come under intense criticism for failing to break-off his vacation while the drama unfolded, was due to attend the Barents Sea ceremony.
Meanwhile, the Russian Navy's Chief of Staff Viktor Kravchenko on Wednesday denied local reports that radiation levels around the sunken submarine nuclear Kursk had risen, Interfax news agency reported.
"Military experts measure radiation levels every hour," he said.
Meteorologists in the city of Murmansk said they had measured a rise in radiation levels on the coast of the Barents Sea, where the ill-fated submarine has been lying on the seabed - MOSCOW (AFP)
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