Divers exploring the fourth section of the vessel were recalled and access holes in the hull were sealed after they encountered too much jagged debris, navy spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky told Russian news agencies.
No more forays inside the Kursk were planned, leaving the number of bodies recovered at 12. A total of 118 men died in the unexplained sinking in the Barents Sea on August 12.
After lengthy discussions aboard the Norwegian support ship, the divers began a final inspection of the wreck.
Underwater cameras were used to film damage to the prow caused when torpedoes and rockets are thought to have detonated with a force equivalent to about four tons of TNT.
"We can assume that the Regalia will return to Norway when this task is completed," Navrotsky said.
A Russian government commission of inquiry led by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov was due to meet in Moscow Wednesday to make a formal decision about the close of the operation, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The film will be used in a planned operation next summer to raise the entire 18,000-ton wreck which additionally holds thousands of tons of sea water.
Inspections since mid-October showed that internal blast damage extends almost halfway along the 155-metre-long vessel. All of its nine sections flooded after the accident.
But reinforced bulwarks enclosing the fifth section where the sub's twin reactors are located withstood the explosions, Navrotsk said.
The Russian navy command stands by its version that a foreign submarine collided with the Kursk, but Klebanov's commission has said it may reveal its own findings later this month.
(dpa)