Technology was “honed to perfection” in the tightest of timeframes to meet a pledge to president and people that Kursk would be raised this year, the government minister in charge of the project said.

        “Not a single, even the most seemingly insignificant, nuance of the technology of the operation went without modelling,” Russian Vice-Premier Ilya Klebanov told strana.ru in an exclusive interview reviewing the mission.

        Risks were involved, he told Rosa Tsvetkova, in avoiding “a disappointing and terrible blow” to families if the president’s order to raise Kursk this year went unfulfilled.

        “But we took that chance. We took a real risk,” Klebanov said. “Unlike all preceding negotiations, the contract was drawn up in a matter of about 10 days: that, for contracts of such scope, was also a world record, I think.”

        In this website’s extensive conversation with the deputy prime minister, Klebanov looked at the failed negotiations with an international consortium which could deliver the lift only next year.

        He looked back at some of the most crucial moments of the mission, at the speculative chatter that “went so far as to almost interfere with our work,” and at the gripes of pundits who kept on carping.

        The interview is being published in full in the Dossier section.

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