Seems that there may be more to this than originally thought. Sounding more like a clash of personalities as time goes on:

From the Steelnavy.com message board re "Peter the Great"

Posted by Chris on March 24, 2004, 10:22:56, in reply to "Impending Soviet Naval Disaster!"

Having read more about this, it sounds like much ado about nothing, that the comments made were more political than anything else. "

Now for a Russian view of the incident:

http://www.mosnews.com/interview/2004/03/24/admiral.shtml

The following information comes from a thread on another messageboard (which I'll provide assuming that it doesn't violate the rules of the board). Please also note that I am not the poster of any of this information, just a reader:

"It's not as simple as it appears. The dire pronouncement about the state of Ptyor Veliky's nuclear reactors was made by Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Admiral Kuroyedov. The captain of the Ptyor Veliky happen to be the newphew of retired Admiral Kasatonov. Retired Admiral Kasatonov happen to sit on a court examing the loss of the K-159, a nuclear submarine that sank with the loss of some lives last year while enroute to scrap yard. This court made some very critical comments about Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Admiral Kuroyedov.

"It is now thought that the dire pronouncement about the Ptyor Veliky's state, and by implication the promotional prospects of her captain, Kasatonov's nephew, is just Admiral Kuroyedov's way of striking back at the family of retired Admiral Kasatonov, who was so critical of Admiral Kuroyedov.

"I am so happy USN Admirals generally don't resort to publically prognosticating the imminent explosion of our nuclear ships as a way to get back at the family of their service rivals."

From further down the thread:

"with the same breath that condamed the Veliky as 'ready to go sky high at any moment', Kuroyedov also gave the captain 2 weeks to fix the problem. I don't think the ship can possibly have any serious reactor problems if what problem she has is fixable in 2 weeks."

And, still further down the thread:

"On the radio this morning, I heard some additional information that the problems on board the ship were mainly superficial ones, such as the portrait of Putin hanging in the wardroom was not properly affixed to the bulkhead, etc. Definitely a political rivalry between two admirals."

While there are definately money/maintenance issues in the Russian Navy, I suspect that PTYOR VELIKY is in better shape than was reported.

Posted by Alex on March 25, 2004, 1:06:01, in reply to "Re: Impending Soviet Naval Disaster!"

You are absolutely right! It's all about politics. Could you imagine that fleet's flagship will be threated in a bad way? It is the very first ship in the whole Russia to show-up, Yeltsin and Putin use to be there, as well as numerous smaller delegations - this ship SIMPLY CANNOT BE OUT OF ORDER. Dot. No comments. Actually, nobody in the entire Russian navy likes Kuroedov, they all waiting for his re-placement - he really sits in a wrong chair. What a stupid comments about the fleet! I feel really shame for such "specialists" in our navy.

A Russian take on the affair:
"Naval Chief Should Shoot Himself":