Kursk Sinks: 118 Sailors Die, Russia Exposed

An internal torpedo explosion ripped through the nuclear submarine Kursk during a Barents Sea exercise, killing all 118 crew members in the worst Russian naval disaster since World War II. The Kremlin's delayed response and refusal of international rescue offers provoked a public outcry that forced President Putin to overhaul military accountability. The Kursk, an Oscar II-class guided missile submarine, sank on August 12, 2000, during a naval exercise in the Barents Sea. The disaster was caused by a hydrogen peroxide-fueled torpedo that leaked and exploded in the forward torpedo room. The initial explosion, equivalent to roughly 100 kilograms of TNT, was followed two minutes later by a catastrophic secondary explosion that registered 4.2 on the Richter scale and destroyed the submarine's first three compartments. Most of the crew died instantly. Twenty-three men in the stern compartments survived the explosions, sealing themselves behind watertight doors. A note found on the body of Captain-Lieutenant Dmitri Kolesnikov indicated survivors were alive for at least several hours after the sinking. The Russian Navy's rescue attempts were catastrophically inept. Rescue submersibles repeatedly failed to dock with the Kursk's escape hatch, and the Navy refused offers of assistance from Norway and Britain for five critical days before finally accepting help. By the time Norwegian divers reached the submarine and opened the hatch, all surviving crew members had perished. Putin, who was vacationing at the Black Sea and did not return to Moscow for several days, faced withering criticism from the families of the dead sailors and the Russian public. The disaster exposed the decay of Russia's military and became a turning point in Putin's presidency, after which he increased defense spending and centralized military command authority.