A Russian military court has formally opened a criminal investigation into the Kursk disaster, Interfax agency quoted police as saying on Saturday.
The investigation was opened on Wednesday under article 263 of the Russian criminal code.
The code covers any "violation of the rules of safety in the driving and use of a rail, air or naval vehicle, that has led to the death through negligence of more than two people."
The August 12th sinking of the nuclear-powered submarine cost the lives of all 118 crewmembers on board.
The choice of this article in the Russian criminal code seemed to confirm that investigators favored the theory that the Kursk collided with another "floating object", the agency said.
Legal sources quoted in Saturday's edition of the daily paper Kommersant nevertheless said that the framing of the investigation did not mean that other theories as to what had happened had been categorically ruled out.
The military court was considering every possibility, from a meteor shower to an act of terrorism, the paper said.
The paper also said that the investigation might also call into question the conduct of the submarine's captain and crew, since no vessel has been identified as being in the area at the time of the disaster.
All Western nations whose submarines may have been in the Barents Sea during the Northern Fleet exercises deny that any of their craft made contact with the doomed Russian sub.
Russian security officials raised the possibility Thursday that the Kursk might have been the victim of sabotage, possibly linked to rebels in breakaway Chechnya.
However, Federal Security Service officials stressed they had no proof confirming such a version of events - MOSCOW (AFP)
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