Russia's Atomic Submarine Disaster 2/2/20
The sinking of the Kursk submarine disaster
Murmarsk is the Arctic hub of the Russian submarine world. The gulf current keeps this area warm and ice free. Here is .Chernay Rechka along a river where Alexander Puskin died from a duel wound.
July 9 2000 the Kursk was a 6 year old twin engine nuclear sub. It has 10 air tight compartments and a crew of 118 men. Putin had been President from Dec31 1999 replacing Yeltsin. Putin was the son of a submariner. Cash strapped Russia's submarine fleet had dwindled from 114 in 1990 to 34. Safety became a casualty of the economic collapse. It cost NATO millions keeping sight of these subs .The Admiral Kuznetsuv was the only remaining aircraft carrier.
The Barents sea is 750 feet deep. With alcoholism the average Russian man usual life expectancy in 65 years old. Fat Girl was the worlds biggest torpedo it contained HTP 85% hydrogen peroxide oxidiser which years earlier had stopped being used in the west as too unstable and had exploded accidentally in1966, 1970,1972 1977. The loading cranes were poorly maintained and the crane factory was now in Odessa part of Ukraine. Paperwork and maintenance of the equipment was poorly kept and tools were stolen so not available when needed. The leading torpedoist were not available and one reported that the Fat Girl was unsafe being loaded . Putin had just met Yasser Arafat and there had been the war in Chechnia.
Two blasts rocked the Barends Sea during a naval exercise and the USS Memphis felts it from 25 miles away then a 3.5 on the Richter scale felt in Norway by seismologists. The Memphis moves away so not to be detected. Knowing the Russians will blame a foreign submarine
23 sailors move to an upper compartment with an escape hatch and emergency equipment .they confirm that the reactors have automatically shut down. The buoys that should go up to indicate their position don't detach. The exercise ends and is shown as success but after 4 hours they have not heard from the Kurtz and start looking. the sailors keep banging a SOS on the escape trunk to attract attention, metal thieves have pilfered breathing masks.
The Russian search and rescue equipment was scrapped or not maintained and there is no reward for delivering bad news in Russia , no alarm is raised.
The Pentagon is informed about this but nobody in Moscow is aware. Admiral Popov only raises the alarm 12 hours after the sub is reported missing.
Rumours reach the home port by sailors who were involved in the search. US Radio Liberty reports what it knows. Once Russian government has gone public Western government offer to help, which is rejected but told over the radio. Callers want the government to get foreign help.
Russian government is known for its telling lies. They value machinery over their citizens. Ehud Barak speaks to Puttin asking him to accept aid and Putin replies that all the seamen are dead. The Admiral had told Putin they knew what they were doing.
Russia biggest daily paper for $650 get a list of who was on the Kurst from a naval officer. When the foreign experts and equipment arrive they can't get the technical details they need.
Putin remembers when he was in East Germany and the KGB office was attacked the phone in Moscow was silent. Kursk is the region where the biggest tank battle that turned back the German army took place.
Gorbechev's mishandling of the Chernobyl by keeping it secret is an example of what not to do. While after Yelsen's free for all chaos the nation wanted a powerful man the ideal of the soviet era.
George Tenet the CIA director arrived in Moscow. Popov assurances of a rescue bid was just a charade. When Russian were brought onto the Eagle a commercial diving vessel used in the oil industry they remarked to each other that Russia was 20 years behind. The buoy meant to signal was still in its original package material and never tested as required.
In the US Mark Madish was under NSA Sandy Berger in the Clinton administration Strobe Talbot was deputy Sec of State and Norman Cohen was Sec of Defence.
Kolesnikov's note was found and published in the press it logged about the 23 still alive and a note to his wife. An oxygen regeneration cartridge fell into the water and exploded consuming all remaining oxygen.
Russian press - America wins first round of WW3. Putin kept distance from the collision theory.
The US tried to dissuade the Russians from giving Iran technical help.
Widows or families were given a $25000 payout and there was not Soviet style cover up. At the cemetery were also the tombs of those who survived the 900 day blockade of Leningrad as well as the Soviet Afgan fighters and then Chenya ones.
Admiral Popov and Verich give contradictory permission to the foreign help vessel,
Later the Kursk was raised by a western contractor and the top navy people are fired but quietly given government jobs. The truth being told put up Putin's rating and it appears this way he go proper control of the military.
He returned the national anthem of the Soviet union even though some words were changed.
In Oct 2002 when hostages' were taken by Chechen rebels and a knock out gas used to anesthetize them and 129 children were killed and the doctors were not told what drug was used to be able to use an antidote - so Russia had reverted to the old ways of people not being important.
Russia continued to arm Saddam Hussein with night vision equipment.
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