Lowering already submarine expectations

Talk about damning with faint praise: the new Russian Borei class submarine "Yuri Dolgoruky" is safer than the "Kursk". You remember what happened to the "Kursk", right?

The consensus on the time-line of the casualty, as per the other military vessels in the area, is though settled at two explosions occurring within a time-gap of two minutes between them. The impact of both explosions ranged in the trinitrotoluene(TNT) force scale, with the first explosion releasing around 100-250 kg worth of TNT force and the second releasing about 3-7 tons of TNT force.

118 Russian sailors died, most likely to problems with torpedo fuel. But the "Yuri Dolgoruky" is safer, because...?

Russia's Vesti TV news says the Yuri Dolgoruky's escape capsule can accommodate the whole crew and float to the surface in an emergency.

Um. So all 107 sailors just have to get from wherever they are (in a submarine so badly damaged that it cannot surface) into the escape capsule, then hope that the damage is not so bad that a) the capsule is blocked from decoupling from the submarine, b) that the capsule's structural integrity is not compromised and c) that the Russian shipyards' engineering expertise is good enough to make a large and complex escape capsule system work the first time that it is used under disaster conditions. Frankly, I'd feel a lot better about the idea if the sub had 3 or more capsules, distributed along the ship, making it more likely that at least some sailors could get off the damaged vessel.

Let me say that I think this capsule is actually a good idea and may well save some lives if things go badly for a Borei class submarine. But comparing it to the situation of the "Kursk" is less than flattering, and disrespectful of the 118 dead sailors. If a 3000kg-equivalent explosion happened on a Borei class submarine, what chance is there that any escape mechanism would help?