Declassified materials on "Kursk": why no one answered for the death of the submarine
Everything secret sooner or later becomes apparent. Therefore, it should not be surprising that on August 29, 2019, the transcripts of his telephone and personal conversations with Vladimir Putin were published on the website of Bill Clinton's digital library. The documents are dated 1999-2001, all of them were classified as "secret". After 20 years, the secrecy label was removed, and they were made public. There is nothing strange in this, it is strange that we noticed it only a year later. The leak was published by Meduza (another resource).
In declassified materials, Putin communicates with American colleagues as director of the FSB and secretary of the Russian Security Council, head of government, etc. about. President of the Russian Federation and already as the head of the Russian state. The topics discussed are different. I was interested in two of them - the sinking of the Kursk nuclear-powered ship and the fate of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.
SSGN K-141 "Kursk"
On September 6, 2000, Vladimir Putin and Bill Clinton met in New York in the presidential suite of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The meeting was also attended by the deputy. Head of the AP RF Sergey Prikhodko and deputy. US Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, fluent in Russian. Please note that the transcript below (in particular, Putin's speech) has been translated twice: first by a translator from Russian into English, and then by Meduza back from English into Russian (some stylistic inaccuracies are possible, but the meaning is conveyed accurately).
Clinton: “I regret everything that you had to go through because of the loss of the Kursk. When something like this happens, people around the world imagine themselves in the place of the victims and their loved ones, but I also imagined myself in your place. You have probably faced a lot of criticism. It always happens. After Oklahoma City, many asked if the building was well defended and if we had allowed terrorists into the country. So my heart was with the people at the bottom of the sea, and with everyone else too. "
Information: Oklahoma City is the largest terrorist attack in the United States at the time of the Clinton-Putin conversation. On April 19, 1995, a car bomb exploded there. The northern part of the Alfred Marr Federal Building was destroyed. As a result of the terrorist attack, 168 people died and more than 680 were injured.
Putin: “I didn't have a good choice. I was trapped between bad and worse options. I was told that if I had just launched a small submarine there and at least tried to save the guys, my ratings would have increased. You shouldn't be allowed to do something like that for the sake of PR. We must give priority to the real salvation of people. I appreciate your sincere support. Ironically, subsequent polls showed that this incident did not affect my situation. But I am very afraid that something like this could happen again. "
Clinton: “Now we are working in a different environment. If a building explodes in Moscow, it’s like it’s happening at our relatives. Or if people in Mozambique are forced to climb trees to escape flooding ... In many ways this is good. It reminds us that others are people too. It's harder to hate after that. But sometimes it is difficult for a leader to do the right thing because of all these strong feelings. "
Putin: “We felt powerless during this disaster. Now it looks like the entire crew died within 60 or 90 seconds. We could not tell our relatives, but there was a hole in the hull about two meters in size, through which the first three compartments of the submarine flooded. I don't even know how we can get the bodies out. There is a lot of cod in these waters - there may be no flesh on the bones. We tried to slow down all this hype, but some people are weird and they just kept fueling it. It's just a fact of life. "
Clinton: “Now we are working in a different environment. If a building explodes in Moscow, it’s like it’s happening at our relatives. Or if people in Mozambique are forced to climb trees to escape flooding ... In many ways this is good. It reminds us that others are people too. It's harder to hate after that. But sometimes it is difficult for a leader to do the right thing because of all these strong feelings. "
Putin: “We felt powerless during this disaster. Now it looks like the entire crew died within 60 or 90 seconds. We could not tell our relatives, but there was a hole in the hull about two meters in size, through which the first three compartments of the submarine flooded. I don't even know how we can get the bodies out. There is a lot of cod in these waters - there may be no flesh on the bones. We tried to slow down all this hype, but some people are weird and they just kept fueling it. It's just a fact of life. "
What you should pay attention to. This conversation took place on September 6, and the accident with the Kursk SSGN occurred on August 12, as a result of which it sank and lay on the bottom in the Barents Sea, 175 km from Severomorsk (69 ° 40 ′ N 37 ° 35 ′ E. at a depth of 108 meters. All 118 crew members on board were killed. In terms of the number of deaths, this is the largest tragedy in the post-war history of the Soviet and Russian submarine fleet.
The official version of the death of K-141 "Kursk"
The investigation of the criminal case was completed on July 22, 2002.
There are no persons guilty of the Kursk SSGN crash, involving the death of one hundred and eighteen people on board the cruiser,
- written in the resolution of the senior investigator for especially important cases of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office Artur Yegiev.
According to the official version, announced in 2002 by Prosecutor General Ustinov, the SSGN crash was caused by the explosion at 11:28:26 Moscow time of the training torpedo 65-76 PV ("Kit") in the torpedo tube No. 4 of the boat, which led to a fire in the 1st compartment, which in turn after 2 minutes led to the detonation of already combat torpedoes and the second explosion, which buried the boat along with the crew. The cause of the first explosion was the leakage of torpedo fuel components (hydrogen peroxide).
Version of Vice Admiral Ryazantsev
This is the official version, which has not yet been denied. Although there is also a report by the deputy. Chief of the Main Directorate of the Navy for Combat Training Vice Admiral Valery Ryazantsev, who was a member of the government commission to investigate the causes and circumstances of the K-141 disaster, who believes that the reason for the first explosion of the so-called "thick" torpedo 65-76 PV was its replenishment with non-fatty air high pressure on August 11, 2000, produced by the boat's crew, who, due to their incompetence, used incorrect instructions, which provoked an uncontrolled reaction of hydrogen peroxide decomposition after loading a torpedo from a rack into a torpedo tube on August 12, 2000. This became possible as a result of the resupply of the crew of the Kursk SSGN before going to sea due to the shortage of specialists from other submarines who have no experience with hydrogen peroxide torpedoes.
The second explosion, according to Vice Admiral Ryazantsev, did not occur as a result of a massive fire in the 1st compartment, but because of the collision of the SSGN with the ground. According to his version, K-141 "Kursk", with the 1st compartment filled with water after the first explosion, at a speed of about 3 knots, with a nose trim of 40-42 degrees, collided with the ground at a depth of 108 meters, as a result of which torpedo tubes No. 1, 3, 5 and 6 with combat torpedoes equipped with fuses were crushed and destroyed, which led to an explosion and the subsequent death of the crew.
Facts established after the 2001 boat was lifted
Even now, after lifting the boat, it became clear that as a result of the explosion of a training torpedo and detonation after hitting the ground with the rest of the combat torpedoes, not only the 1st torpedo compartment was destroyed, but also the 2nd, where the Central Post was located together with the ship's commander, Caprang Gennady Lyachin. and the senior campaign chief of staff of the 7th division of the nuclear submarine of the Northern Fleet, caperang Vladimir Bagryantsev (and this could not be avoided due to the design features of the 941A Antey project, as Ryazantsev pointed out). The blast wave, crushing the bulkheads, reached the 5th compartment, the aft bulkhead of which bent, but withstood the blow. Most of the crew died immediately, but 23 members managed to escape by being battered in the 9th compartment. They hoped for help, but it did not come because of the criminal inaction of the SF command and personally of the SF commander, Admiral Popov, who directly supervised the exercises. The boat was not declared emergency on time (it happened only 12 hours later), time was lost, rescue work began when, in fact, there was no one to save. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief was not properly informed, as a result he did not even interrupt his vacation in Sochi, which lasted until 17 August. The deceased sailors were posthumously awarded the Orders of Courage, the commander of K-141 caperang Lyachin was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (but not for the death of the boat, but for the previous campaign, it just happened posthumously).
The fact that Vice Admiral Ryazantsev's version was accepted for execution is clear from the following fact: after Prosecutor General Ustinov submitted his report to the President on November 25, 2001, within three hours a decree was signed on the dismissal of seventeen officers of the Northern Fleet and the General Staff of the Navy , including several admirals, with the wording "for omissions in the organization of combat training." In fact, by doing so, they swept the garbage under the carpet, and the version of Prosecutor General Ustinov was recognized as the official version.
It's clear that it's a dark thing
Every year, the history of the sinking of the Kursk SSGN acquires new details, which, however, do not add any clarity. The commander-in-chief, of course, knows the real picture, but does not consider it necessary to make it public. Only one thing is clear from the declassified negotiations with Clinton - at the time of the conversation with the US President, Putin did not know the real picture of the tragedy, mistakenly believing that the entire crew died literally in the first 1,5 minutes after the explosion. The fact that this is not so is evident from the posthumous notes of Lieutenant-Commander Kolesnikov, Lieutenant Commander Sadilenko and Senior Warrant Officer Borisov, discovered after the boat was lifted, which they wrote in the dark, being battened down along with the other 20 surviving sailors in the de-energized 9th compartment. ... These notes did not help, of course, to establish the cause of the death of the submarine, but from them it is clear that the survivors were waiting for help from outside, being unable to come to the surface themselves. They themselves had no chance to escape. Only the rescuers had a chance to save them. But the first two days were lost, thanks to the Commander of the Northern Fleet. Two days later, there was no one to save. It is clear that there was no talk of saving people then.
Who is more to blame for this, everyone decides for himself. I would not remove some of the guilt from the Supreme Commander, with all due respect to him. An unwritten law has been passed in the fleet - the commander is responsible for everything on the ship. Even if the watchman did not report the incident to him, he is still to blame, and for the fact that he did not report - too! And Putin at that time took control of our common ship. I am sure he himself still feels his guilt for this, he is a decent person. But why the guilty were not punished, the same SF commander is a question! So there was an attempt to play. And this is our big minus. We are all trying to play. Then with "Kursk", a year ago with Losharik. All closed-door - dead heroes, no one is to blame.
What does this practice lead to? To the next accidents! And the fact that VVP revived our Navy, so honor and glory to him, no one denies this. But an attempt to play and hide everything under the cloth is our everything! Nothing has changed since the time of Peter I.
Summary
K-141 "Kursk" crashed and sank almost in full view of the fleet. According to the Instruction, she should have been declared emergency one hour after the ascent report expired. And immediately measures had to be taken to rescue the surviving submariners. But the emergency alert in the fleet was announced only 10 hours later! The blame for the criminal delay was, first of all, the head of the exercises, Admiral Popov (who did not bear any responsibility for this). In addition, there are no rescue vessels left in the fleet specially trained to rescue submarine crews. There were descent vehicles, but there were no necessary, well-trained specialists. All efforts to save the submariners on the part of our rescuers, who nevertheless arrived at the crash site with a great delay, were unsuccessful. As a result, management late turned to the Norwegian government for help, where such rescue devices were available. We lost time, and the surviving sailors died due to the sudden deterioration of the situation in the compartment ...
Eternal memory to heroes!
And in the declassified talks between Putin and the 42nd US President, I was personally struck by the degree of frankness of both. Especially against the backdrop of the details of his confidential telephone conversations with his Russian counterpart, recently leaked by Macron through the French media. I fully admit that the leaders of both countries in private conversations, believing that they will not be made public, may not say that. Only Clinton waited 20 years for the talks to be publicized, and Macron acted ugly, violating the unwritten code of honor. If his surname was Zelensky, I would not even be surprised, but I did not expect it from the president of the 5th republic. Even Lavrov, who had seen a lot, could not believe this.
But returning to Clinton and our deceased Project 949A Antey submarine, I want to say that she owes her life to him. More precisely, his Operation Allied Force, the NATO bombing of Serbia (FRY) in 1999, after which relations between our countries deteriorated, and we suspended the dismantling of the SSGN of this project. It must be said that the Kursk was the twelfth in a series of thirteen Project 949 Granit-Antey submarines, created to combat aircraft carrier strike groups of the US Navy. These "aircraft carrier killers" in the navy were jokingly called "batons" because of their cylindrical design, divided into ten strong compartments (the 9th was the last one from the stern, since, in addition to the 5th, there was also a 5bis compartment). Against the background of Yeltsin's warming of relations between our countries, we managed to withdraw from the fleet and send for disposal two similar cruisers - K-525 "Arkhangelsk" (withdrawn from the Northern Fleet in 1996) and K-206 "Murmansk" (withdrawn from the Pacific Fleet 1998), subsequently disposed of at the expense of the UK at the Zvezdochka enterprise (in 2005). And also to mothball and suspend the construction of two new ones - K-135 Volgograd (laid down in 1993, cut into metal in 2012) and K-160 "Barnaul" (readiness for 2002 - 49%, cut into metal in 2012). The same fate awaited the remaining eleven nuclear-powered submarines, including the Kursk, but friend Bill changed his fate, thereby dooming 118 sailors to death. These are the vicissitudes of fate.
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