Three months into Vladimir Putin’s new presidency, a blast in the Barents Sea ripped open and sank Russia’s prized nuclear submarine Kursk – in an explosion so powerful that its impact was felt in Alaska.
It was August 12, 2000 and, as the deadliest naval incident of post-Soviet Russia unfurled – resulting in the death of all 118 crew – Putin refused to cut short his holiday in Sochi to deal with the crisis.
In the eyes of millions – including the world’s media – he had failed in his first big challenge as leader.
The subsequent public and press criticism is said to have traumatised him.
But a cornered animal is at its most dangerous – and Putin, who dismissed negative reports, saying: “The TV lies.” became ruthless in his pursuit of power and control at all costs.
The ramifications of the tragedy can still be felt 25 years on – as we fast approach the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Royal Navy Commodore David Russell, the submariner who led the British response to the disaster, goes as far as to say: “It was a formative event in Putin’s rule and set him on the path to dictatorship.
“Kursk gave a very clear picture of the next 25 years. Kursk has led to the war in Ukraine. And now the certainties of the post-Cold War period are disappearing.”
David features in new two-part documentary KURSK: 10 Days That Shaped Putin, which premieres on Tuesday on Sky History to mark the 25th anniversary of the tragedy.
David continues: “In 2000, nobody had really heard of Boris Yeltsin’s replacement – apart from that he was ex-KGB.”
As a former KGB Lieutenant Colonel, Putin was trained to see anyone outside Russia as an enemy, but his capitalist leanings had been taken as a positive sign by the West.
“We felt hopeful we were entering a new dawn of peace and cooperation between Russia and the West.” says David.
But the sinking of the 16,000-tonne, six-year-old Kursk – the size of two jumbo jets and Russia’s most modern advanced warship, with missiles that could be armed with thermonuclear warheads 30 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima – massively dented Russia, and Putin’s pride.
Of the sub, sunk during a military exercise, David says: “It was the same size as our Trident submarine and full of the latest technology, with a very good captain and crew.”
Kursk’s mission that Saturday morning was to approach a target undetected and fire a practice torpedo. But the torpedo contained high test peroxide, a very dangerous fuel that leaked through a faulty seal.
At 11:30 am, the torpedo detonated, carving a gash in the sub’s nose. Due to the ensuing fire, the other torpedoes and missile warheads exploded two minutes later.
Meanwhile, the supervising crew heard the blasts but, believing it was part of the test, were unconcerned until twelve hours later at 11.30 pm – when the Kursk failed to resurface at the expected time.
News of the sinking reached the British Navy on Monday morning, August 14.
“We didn’t wait to be told – we chartered an aircraft to take the submarine rescue equipment off to Norway,” he says.
They were all ready to go, but the Russians didn’t ask for help until the Wednesday.
“It was extremely frustrating,” says David. “We got no response to that offer really for about 24 hours. You start to lose time, because these things all have to be done within minutes. Even when we got there, we weren’t allowed to come close to the disaster site. We were told to stay away.
“I thought that if no one was alive, it was fine – it was a salvage operation. But minutes matter. If we can get there quickly, who knows? We might be able to save some of those sailors.”
All the delays, tragically, meant they were too late.
“It became very clear that the Russians didn’t view this as a rescue mission. They viewed it as a salvage mission,” says David, gravely.
The British Navy’s crew aboard the Normand Pioneer worked alongside 18 commercial divers from Britain and Norway on the Seaway Eagle to try and rescue the submariners.
One of them was Garry Ball, now 69, who was working for a commercial diving salvage company tackling a project for the Norwegian Government at the time.
He tells The Mirror: “We had no idea what we were dealing with, what happened on the submarine, and we didn’t have all the right safety equipment. If anything went wrong – our divers would be goners.”
But, seeing families of the 118 submariners on TV, desperately waiting for information, made them determined to help.
Garry recalls: “On the footage, a hysterical woman, whose son was one of those trapped, demanded answers from Russian officials. As she continued to vent her fury and distress, a military member stuck a tranquilliser dart into her shoulder.
“As we watched that poor woman being tranquillised, we knew we had to do it for the families. I thought about how my loved ones would feel if it was me. People were in trouble and it was our duty to help. “
The documentary shows shocking footage of the mother shouting: “Bastards! I’ll never forgive you,” after which the military start throwing journalists out of the room – a stark warning of things to come, in Putin’s Russia.
When a submarine like Kursk sinks, according to the experts, if you survive, you will be in what is known as an “escape compartment,” which is an escape tower with two hatches.
Garry, who was finally allowed on board Kursk the weekend after the disaster, continues: “We were reliant on hand drawings of the submarine escape hatch. Information was scant and it seemed like the Russians were wasting time.
“We quickly realised the Russians didn’t want to see us achieving where they had failed.
“By the time we reached the hatch, everyone held their breath. We were trying to open the hatch. The tide was rising, so it was holding the hatch down. For the tidal range to have an influence on the hatch it had to be fully flooded. It was then clear that nobody had survived.
“We wanted to at least get a body out to give back to the relatives – something that would bring some closure. We were bitterly disappointed we were not able to do that.”
In October, two months after the sinking, four bodies were recovered, as well as a note written by one of the dead, Officer Kolesnikov, dated 1.15pm – two hours after the initial blasts were heard – which revealed that 23 men had survived.
He wrote how it was very hard in the compartment and hard to breathe, saying:“ None of us can get to the surface.”
David says: “It very possible, they could have survived another two days, but help was too late.”
It was later discovered that the submariners had never been trained to operate the torpedo – meaning their lives were knowingly put at risk.
David firmly blames Putin for the scale of the disaster, saying: “He could have accepted help. Principally, I think it was a matter of pride. Russians tried to use their own submersible to lock on to Kursk and save the survivors but it failed. They did not want to see the West succeed where they had failed. They did not want to appear to be second best to the west.
“There was also undoubtedly, unsurprisingly, a security element. They would not have wanted to risk Russian secrets being handed over to the West.”
The events of Kursk continue to haunt Garry.
“I’m not one to think deeply about anniversaries, but it has always consistently bothered me how those men died in Number nine compartment,” he says. “That’s haunted me ever since. “The truth matters There is no learning otherwise. Not everything was done to save these men. They died a horrendous death.
“It told me what Russia under Putin is capable of – and we’ve seen that play out in the years since.”
Looking ahead at Russia’s subsequent aggression and the war in Ukraine, David adds: “Russia is now back where it wanted be – sitting at the table – with America – they see themelves as a global power -and Putin wants to build up the Russian Empire.
He won’t stop at Ukraine. If I was living in Latvia and Estonia or Lithuania right now – which have large Russian populations – I’d be getting increasingly concerned.
‘All of Europe now needs to increase defence spending – if we want to live in peace, we’d better prepare for war.”
KURSK: 10 Days That Shaped Putin, premieres on Sky History at 9pm on Sky HISTORY
