Two years ago, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk exploded and sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea killing 118 sailors. Events before and after the disaster read like a cross between a thriller and a litany of cover-ups, writes Arminta Wallace
It was a story straight out of a Cold War spy thriller. A missing submarine; a massive underwater explosion; rumours of a collision - or worse, the malfunction of some sinister and immensely powerful new weapon; international accusations and counter-accusations; the threat of ecological disaster in the Arctic. But when the Russian guided-missile nuclear submarine Kursk sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea during a routine training exercise on August 12th 2000, the Cold War was supposed to have long since melted under the sunny skies of the New World Order. Gripped by the idea of the crew of 118 trapped in their tin can 300 feet below the icy surface of a sullen ocean, the international media turned its gaze to the sprightly new head of state who had replaced an enfeebled Boris Yeltsin on New Year's Eve 1999, Vladimir Putin, and waited for information.
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