The death of 20 people inside a Russian nuclear-powered submarine due to an accident is, according to experts, an inconvenience for Moscow, as it would like to uphold its military strength and its role of world super power.

The accident -due to the release of noxious gases for the sudden triggering of the fire-fighting system in the submarine during some testing- was untimely. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will attend ending November together with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez, naval exercises in front of Venezuelan coasts, AFP reported.

After the Kursk tragedy in 2002, resulting in 118 casualties, and subsequent multiple untoward events, the latest episode is "a sharp blow to the Russian military industry," said Pavel Felgenhauer, an expert in defense issues.

In the opinion of Felgenhauer, this accident seriously damages the sector, particularly because the wrecked submarine, of the Akula class, the fastest and quietest in the Russian marine, was to be assigned in usufruct to the Indian Navy in 2009 for ten years.

"As for the international public opinion, some people are keenly aware that Russian is not any stronger," said Alexandre Goltz, a specialist in military topics of Russian e-magazine Iejednevny Journal.

"Our armed forces regained most of their fighting potential, but the military command, however, should ponder not only the successes but also the failures," said Medvedev last Wednesday.

Russian leaders have tried to use the country's giant oil resources to renew the Russian military industry, which in the nineties, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, was almost destroyed.