00:15 - Two sailors carrying a wreath
Colgan: The maritime city of St Petersburg
00:18 - Mourning crowd
on a day everyone remembers.
00:23 - Two sailors carrying a wreath
It was two years ago that
00:25
118 submariners went to their deaths in the Barents Sea.
00:33
Husbands, sons, fathers
00:37 - Photo of victims
32 of the men are buried here.
00:41 - Mourners
For two years, families have waited for the truth about these
00:45 - Mourners laying a wreath
deaths. Theyve endured lies, threats and cover-ups.
00:51 - Nadezhda
Nadezhda: How long can this go on ? They were kept in that tin can for only $50 - $60 a month. What did I raise him for? Tell me, do you have children? Do you not have children? Its shameful.
01:13 - Underwater footage of wreckage
Colgan: They now know, the Russian military wants to bury the Kursk tragedy as deep as the deepest depths of the Barents Sea.
01:25
Nikitin: Firstly, well never learn the whole truth and...
01:28 - Nikitin
secondly no one will be punished because this involves the people at the very top.
Music
01:56 - Footage of Russian Navy
Colgan: The 12th of August 2000 - Russia was determined to show it was still a naval power, with the biggest military exercises in years, in the Barents Sea.
The pride of the Northern Fleet Russias first class Nuclear submarine, the Kursk. For the past 4 years, shed sailed under the proud command, of Captain Gennady Lyachin.
02:26
Lyachin: In my opinion and that of my superior commanders,
02:28
Gennady Lyachin
Commander The Kursk
this submarine is the most combat ready unit not only in the northern fleet - but the whole of the Russian navy.
02:40 - Footage of Russian Navy
Colgan: But late that morning, the pride of the fleet was to become the fleets shame. Vessels nearby noted two big explosions, two minutes apart. Contact with the Kursk ceased, the ships nearby did nothing.
03:00 - Alexander Nikitin (Former Captain, Russian Navy)
Nikitin: There was the usual inertia. They were waiting, they expected the submarine to contact them as it was bound to do. But the submarine didnt contact them. So they waited some more, there was no immediate reaction.
03:15 - Newsreader
Colgan: By the time the Russian public learnt of the plight of the Kursk and her crew, shed been at the bottom of the sea for two days. The military immediately assured everyone the situation was in control and the men were alive.
August 15, 2000 Igor Dygalo (Official Spokesman, Russian Navy)Dygalo: Communications have been restored, we are in contact with the crew.
03:43 - Navy personnel
Colgan: In truth, there was no contact with the crew. Yet this came from the Naval Commander in Chief.
03:51 - Vladimir Kuroyedov (Commander-in-Chief, Russian navy)Kuroyedov: The only thing that is clear is that the people are alive and they are sending SOS signals. And thats the truth.
Music
04:04 - Inside submarine
Colgan: We now know that every last man on board that submarine was already dead. And theyd died long before rescuers even found the vessel. Their families, the Russian people, the rest of the world were being deliberately misled.
04:23
Nikitin Nikitin: I had only one reaction its nothing but lies, total lies.
04:29 - Nikitin on a bridge
Colgan: Alexander Nikitin is a former naval captain who served on a nuclear submarine. Hes considered a traitor by the Russian military and a hero by the Russian people.
04:42 - Footage of Nikitin going to prison
Six years ago, he was jailed on charges of treason his crime, was to tell the public about the Russian militarys policy of dumping nuclear waste. When he heard about the Kursk, Alexander Nikitin knew what was taking place at fleet command.
05:01
Nikitin Nikitin: From the very start they were looking for a theory that would immediately put the blame onto someone else. That was the main motivation of the Admirals to blame someone else.
05:22 - Animation of Kursk
Colgan: At first they blamed a leftover World War 2 mine for blowing up the sub then they claimed a foreign vessel had collided with the Kursk.
05:35 - Nikitin
Nikitin: A collision would have been ideal outcome for them. Americans or the British have entered our waters, sunk our submarine and left. No one is guilty. This was their main motive. I can tell you, practically every high-ranking military officer has just one priority to keep his seat.
06:12 - Rescue effort
Colgan: The Russians repeatedly tried and failed to reach the Kursk, with outdated, substandard rescue equipment. Yet misplaced pride and fear of exposing the truth, led naval command to ignore numerous international offers of help.
06:32 - Scottish Rescue team
In Scotland, a top team of rescuers waited, ready with a British submarine rescue craft far better than anything the Russians had. Tom Heron was the pilot of the LR-5.
06:47
Heron: As soon as we heard, we were on stand-by.
06:49 - Tom Heron (Pilot LR5 Rescue Craft)
As soon as we had word coming through, there was things being arranged and we were ahead of the game.
06:59 - Russian Rescue crew
Colgan: The Russians finally allowed them to come to the site six days after the Kursk sank.
07:06 - Thomson
Thomson: I think as soon as the Kursk went down, we and Im sure many other people, offered to do anything we possibly could.
Super Julian Thomson Stolt Offshore Company
07:16 - Underwater footage
Colgan: From Norway, the Stolt Company was sending a team of commercial divers to the rescue. The Russians had put their failure to get to the Kursk down to bad weather and strong currents -- the team from Stolt found neither.
07:33
Thomson: What we found when we got to the Barents Sea was millpond, I quote millpond conditions. Absolutely flat calm. The seabed conditions were excellent for diving -- 20 metres visibility, very little current, less than half a knot. Ideal diving conditions. The submarine was upright,
07:52 - Thomson lying flat on the seabed.
So from our point of view, an easy working environment, well within our experience and technology.
08:07 - Underwater footage of the Kursk
Colgan: It was the Stolt divers who finally reached the Kursk first, filming these pictures. Theyd been told the hatch was damaged and the vessel lying on a sharp angle. It was simply more lies designed to disguise the Russian teams failure.
08:25
Thomson: I really dont understand
08:27 - Thomson
any of the stories that came out because they were not most of them bore little relationship to the truth as we knew it at the time.
08:37 - Underwater footage of the Kursk Colgan:
What the Stolt team did find was the worst possible outcome. Eight days after she sank, the hatch to the Kursk was opened -- she was full of water. Every man inside was dead.
08:57 - Music
09:15 - Funeral procession
Colgan: The town of Kursk gave the submarine its name its people gave their sons. Now the Kubikov family was burying their son, Roman -- the 21year old had served a year on the Kursk and had just six months left before he was due home.
09:39 - Photo of Alyosha Nekrasova
Romans friend, Alyosha Nekrasova was from the same town and serving as a conscript on the submarine.
09:48
Nekrasova: Alyosha turned 19 on the 9th of August and he died on August the 12th, just three days later.
10:02 - Nadezhda Nekrasova
Alyosha was a very good person. I had the best son in the world, honestly. He was very kind and caring.
10:20 - Funeral procession
Colgan: Alyoshas mother faced an agonising wait for news of her son.
10:27
Nadezhda: Id been at work and came home and I stopped the car to open the gates. My elder son came out and said Alyoshas sub is in trouble. My legs became weak, he tried to calm me down saying theyd normalised the situation. That communications had been restored and they were pumping in oxygen.
10:55
Colgan: It was all a lie. Just days later, the navy told the parents their sons were dead and all the men had died, immediately the Kursk sank. In the next breath, the military admitted that too was a lie.
Music
11:22
Nadezhda: We were assured that our children died instantly. But then we learnt it wasnt true, that our children, not all of them but one fifth of the crew,
11:34 - Nadezhda
had been alive and waiting to be rescued, you know.
Music
11:48 - Russian rescuer:
Lets open it up and read it.
11:53
Colgan: The Navy claims it discovered a note on the body of one of 23 sailors found in the 9th compartment. The note was written by the young officer whod assumed command of the survivors, Dmitry Kolesnikov.
12:09 - Photo
Kolesnikov: Theres no doubt - no doubt at all.
12:14 - Roman Kolesnikov
I saw the note; I saw his handwriting and all of his friends that studied with him, say that after seeing the text, that it is Mitya 150 percent.
12:28 - Footage Dmitry Kolesnikov
Colgan: The 26 year old seen here, took the remaining men and emergency equipment to the 9th compartment and wrote his final words. He told his new bride he loved her, sent his regards to his parents and listed the names of the men with him. Dont despair, he wrote.
12:51 - Kolesnikovs
Kolesnikov: Whether Im proud or not, if hes a hero or not doesnt matter to me. I remember him simply as my son. Thats all.
13:00 - Photos Dmitry
Colgan: Roman Kolesnikov was also a submariner. He believes Dmitry and the others could have survived long enough to be rescued if theyd had the right emergency equipment. But their efforts to stay alive were sabotaged from the start.
13:13 - Footage of demonstration of breathing apparatus Their breathing equipment was so old and unstable; it caught fire when it came into contact with seawater. What was meant to save them, helped kill them.
13:30
This is the safety device for underwater use. The problem is, this device is called IDA 59M and 59 means that this device dates back to 1959.
13:56 - Black and white footage of Navy fleet
Colgan: Years of under funding by the Russian Government had left the Navys emergency equipment woefully outdated and rendered its rescue services useless.
14:09 - Irina Kolesnikov
Irina: The Kursk is a horrible victim of this system, thats what I think. And our son too is a victim of this system
14:19 - Kolesnikovs
and they were killed, as the 12 yr old child of one dead officer said my daddy was killed by the state.
14:31 - Kolesnikovs photo with son
Theres nothing more to be said on it, our son was killed by the state too.
14:41 - Hearing venue
Colgan: When Russias Prosecutor-General did deliver his findings after a two year criminal investigation, they were limited to the technicalities of what caused the explosions. There was no World War Two mine. There was no collision. The first explosion on the Kursk was caused by the leakage of highly unstable torpedo fuel, a mixture of hydrogen peroxide long abandoned by Western countries, following similar accidents.
15:13 - Submarine in dry dock with damage
That explosion detonated the submarines entire stock of torpedoes.
15:20 - Vladimir Ustinov (Russian Prosecutor-General)
Ustinov: As a result of the second explosion, all sailor-submariners whose bodies were found in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th compartments, died within a very short period of time from tens of seconds to several minutes.
15:46
Colgan: He found Dmitry, Alyosha, Roman and the other survivors died from carbon monoxide poisoning within eight hours of the
15:55 - Inside the Kursk
explosions. But, according to the Prosecutor General, no one could have foreseen the torpedo explosion. Therefore, no one will be held responsible for the deaths of the men -- case closed.
16:14 - Nadezhda
Nadezhda: I think that our military and top officials thought about saving their positions first of all. They cared about saving their jobs, not about saving our children.
16:28 - Nikitin
Nikitin: Huge amounts of money, huge barriers and huge fences are used to hide the crime, negligence and theft. This is the kind of fence that is being built to hide state secrets. Its a fact.
17:05 - Mourners
Colgan: The inquiry outcome has given no comfort to the grieving families. Roman and Irina Kolesnikov believe much is still hidden and are pushing for another investigation.
17:25 - Kolesnikov
Kolesnikov: To be honest, I am ashamed for our state. It catches criminals whove stolen a sack of potatoes and puts them in jail for 3 years but when 118 people are killed during an exercise, when Russias prestige is dealt a huge blow, when a submarine that costs 1.5 billion dollars is destroyed, they cant find anyone responsible.
18:15 - Mourners
Colgan: But the Russian Government no longer wants to discuss this tragedy. With this second anniversary, it considers the disaster dead and buried just like the men of the Kursk.
18:59 - KURSK
Reporter: Jill Colgan
Camera: David Martin and Mark Slade
Editor: Stuart Miller
Research: Irris Makler
Producer: Ian Altschwager
Colgan: The maritime city of St Petersburg
00:18 - Mourning crowd
on a day everyone remembers.
00:23 - Two sailors carrying a wreath
It was two years ago that
00:25
118 submariners went to their deaths in the Barents Sea.
00:33
Husbands, sons, fathers
00:37 - Photo of victims
32 of the men are buried here.
00:41 - Mourners
For two years, families have waited for the truth about these
00:45 - Mourners laying a wreath
deaths. Theyve endured lies, threats and cover-ups.
00:51 - Nadezhda
Nadezhda: How long can this go on ? They were kept in that tin can for only $50 - $60 a month. What did I raise him for? Tell me, do you have children? Do you not have children? Its shameful.
01:13 - Underwater footage of wreckage
Colgan: They now know, the Russian military wants to bury the Kursk tragedy as deep as the deepest depths of the Barents Sea.
01:25
Nikitin: Firstly, well never learn the whole truth and...
01:28 - Nikitin
secondly no one will be punished because this involves the people at the very top.
Music
01:56 - Footage of Russian Navy
Colgan: The 12th of August 2000 - Russia was determined to show it was still a naval power, with the biggest military exercises in years, in the Barents Sea.
The pride of the Northern Fleet Russias first class Nuclear submarine, the Kursk. For the past 4 years, shed sailed under the proud command, of Captain Gennady Lyachin.
02:26
Lyachin: In my opinion and that of my superior commanders,
02:28
Gennady Lyachin
Commander The Kursk
this submarine is the most combat ready unit not only in the northern fleet - but the whole of the Russian navy.
02:40 - Footage of Russian Navy
Colgan: But late that morning, the pride of the fleet was to become the fleets shame. Vessels nearby noted two big explosions, two minutes apart. Contact with the Kursk ceased, the ships nearby did nothing.
03:00 - Alexander Nikitin (Former Captain, Russian Navy)
Nikitin: There was the usual inertia. They were waiting, they expected the submarine to contact them as it was bound to do. But the submarine didnt contact them. So they waited some more, there was no immediate reaction.
03:15 - Newsreader
Colgan: By the time the Russian public learnt of the plight of the Kursk and her crew, shed been at the bottom of the sea for two days. The military immediately assured everyone the situation was in control and the men were alive.
August 15, 2000 Igor Dygalo (Official Spokesman, Russian Navy)Dygalo: Communications have been restored, we are in contact with the crew.
03:43 - Navy personnel
Colgan: In truth, there was no contact with the crew. Yet this came from the Naval Commander in Chief.
03:51 - Vladimir Kuroyedov (Commander-in-Chief, Russian navy)Kuroyedov: The only thing that is clear is that the people are alive and they are sending SOS signals. And thats the truth.
Music
04:04 - Inside submarine
Colgan: We now know that every last man on board that submarine was already dead. And theyd died long before rescuers even found the vessel. Their families, the Russian people, the rest of the world were being deliberately misled.
04:23
Nikitin Nikitin: I had only one reaction its nothing but lies, total lies.
04:29 - Nikitin on a bridge
Colgan: Alexander Nikitin is a former naval captain who served on a nuclear submarine. Hes considered a traitor by the Russian military and a hero by the Russian people.
04:42 - Footage of Nikitin going to prison
Six years ago, he was jailed on charges of treason his crime, was to tell the public about the Russian militarys policy of dumping nuclear waste. When he heard about the Kursk, Alexander Nikitin knew what was taking place at fleet command.
05:01
Nikitin Nikitin: From the very start they were looking for a theory that would immediately put the blame onto someone else. That was the main motivation of the Admirals to blame someone else.
05:22 - Animation of Kursk
Colgan: At first they blamed a leftover World War 2 mine for blowing up the sub then they claimed a foreign vessel had collided with the Kursk.
05:35 - Nikitin
Nikitin: A collision would have been ideal outcome for them. Americans or the British have entered our waters, sunk our submarine and left. No one is guilty. This was their main motive. I can tell you, practically every high-ranking military officer has just one priority to keep his seat.
06:12 - Rescue effort
Colgan: The Russians repeatedly tried and failed to reach the Kursk, with outdated, substandard rescue equipment. Yet misplaced pride and fear of exposing the truth, led naval command to ignore numerous international offers of help.
06:32 - Scottish Rescue team
In Scotland, a top team of rescuers waited, ready with a British submarine rescue craft far better than anything the Russians had. Tom Heron was the pilot of the LR-5.
06:47
Heron: As soon as we heard, we were on stand-by.
06:49 - Tom Heron (Pilot LR5 Rescue Craft)
As soon as we had word coming through, there was things being arranged and we were ahead of the game.
06:59 - Russian Rescue crew
Colgan: The Russians finally allowed them to come to the site six days after the Kursk sank.
07:06 - Thomson
Thomson: I think as soon as the Kursk went down, we and Im sure many other people, offered to do anything we possibly could.
Super Julian Thomson Stolt Offshore Company
07:16 - Underwater footage
Colgan: From Norway, the Stolt Company was sending a team of commercial divers to the rescue. The Russians had put their failure to get to the Kursk down to bad weather and strong currents -- the team from Stolt found neither.
07:33
Thomson: What we found when we got to the Barents Sea was millpond, I quote millpond conditions. Absolutely flat calm. The seabed conditions were excellent for diving -- 20 metres visibility, very little current, less than half a knot. Ideal diving conditions. The submarine was upright,
07:52 - Thomson lying flat on the seabed.
So from our point of view, an easy working environment, well within our experience and technology.
08:07 - Underwater footage of the Kursk
Colgan: It was the Stolt divers who finally reached the Kursk first, filming these pictures. Theyd been told the hatch was damaged and the vessel lying on a sharp angle. It was simply more lies designed to disguise the Russian teams failure.
08:25
Thomson: I really dont understand
08:27 - Thomson
any of the stories that came out because they were not most of them bore little relationship to the truth as we knew it at the time.
08:37 - Underwater footage of the Kursk Colgan:
What the Stolt team did find was the worst possible outcome. Eight days after she sank, the hatch to the Kursk was opened -- she was full of water. Every man inside was dead.
08:57 - Music
09:15 - Funeral procession
Colgan: The town of Kursk gave the submarine its name its people gave their sons. Now the Kubikov family was burying their son, Roman -- the 21year old had served a year on the Kursk and had just six months left before he was due home.
09:39 - Photo of Alyosha Nekrasova
Romans friend, Alyosha Nekrasova was from the same town and serving as a conscript on the submarine.
09:48
Nekrasova: Alyosha turned 19 on the 9th of August and he died on August the 12th, just three days later.
10:02 - Nadezhda Nekrasova
Alyosha was a very good person. I had the best son in the world, honestly. He was very kind and caring.
10:20 - Funeral procession
Colgan: Alyoshas mother faced an agonising wait for news of her son.
10:27
Nadezhda: Id been at work and came home and I stopped the car to open the gates. My elder son came out and said Alyoshas sub is in trouble. My legs became weak, he tried to calm me down saying theyd normalised the situation. That communications had been restored and they were pumping in oxygen.
10:55
Colgan: It was all a lie. Just days later, the navy told the parents their sons were dead and all the men had died, immediately the Kursk sank. In the next breath, the military admitted that too was a lie.
Music
11:22
Nadezhda: We were assured that our children died instantly. But then we learnt it wasnt true, that our children, not all of them but one fifth of the crew,
11:34 - Nadezhda
had been alive and waiting to be rescued, you know.
Music
11:48 - Russian rescuer:
Lets open it up and read it.
11:53
Colgan: The Navy claims it discovered a note on the body of one of 23 sailors found in the 9th compartment. The note was written by the young officer whod assumed command of the survivors, Dmitry Kolesnikov.
12:09 - Photo
Kolesnikov: Theres no doubt - no doubt at all.
12:14 - Roman Kolesnikov
I saw the note; I saw his handwriting and all of his friends that studied with him, say that after seeing the text, that it is Mitya 150 percent.
12:28 - Footage Dmitry Kolesnikov
Colgan: The 26 year old seen here, took the remaining men and emergency equipment to the 9th compartment and wrote his final words. He told his new bride he loved her, sent his regards to his parents and listed the names of the men with him. Dont despair, he wrote.
12:51 - Kolesnikovs
Kolesnikov: Whether Im proud or not, if hes a hero or not doesnt matter to me. I remember him simply as my son. Thats all.
13:00 - Photos Dmitry
Colgan: Roman Kolesnikov was also a submariner. He believes Dmitry and the others could have survived long enough to be rescued if theyd had the right emergency equipment. But their efforts to stay alive were sabotaged from the start.
13:13 - Footage of demonstration of breathing apparatus Their breathing equipment was so old and unstable; it caught fire when it came into contact with seawater. What was meant to save them, helped kill them.
13:30
This is the safety device for underwater use. The problem is, this device is called IDA 59M and 59 means that this device dates back to 1959.
13:56 - Black and white footage of Navy fleet
Colgan: Years of under funding by the Russian Government had left the Navys emergency equipment woefully outdated and rendered its rescue services useless.
14:09 - Irina Kolesnikov
Irina: The Kursk is a horrible victim of this system, thats what I think. And our son too is a victim of this system
14:19 - Kolesnikovs
and they were killed, as the 12 yr old child of one dead officer said my daddy was killed by the state.
14:31 - Kolesnikovs photo with son
Theres nothing more to be said on it, our son was killed by the state too.
14:41 - Hearing venue
Colgan: When Russias Prosecutor-General did deliver his findings after a two year criminal investigation, they were limited to the technicalities of what caused the explosions. There was no World War Two mine. There was no collision. The first explosion on the Kursk was caused by the leakage of highly unstable torpedo fuel, a mixture of hydrogen peroxide long abandoned by Western countries, following similar accidents.
15:13 - Submarine in dry dock with damage
That explosion detonated the submarines entire stock of torpedoes.
15:20 - Vladimir Ustinov (Russian Prosecutor-General)
Ustinov: As a result of the second explosion, all sailor-submariners whose bodies were found in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th compartments, died within a very short period of time from tens of seconds to several minutes.
15:46
Colgan: He found Dmitry, Alyosha, Roman and the other survivors died from carbon monoxide poisoning within eight hours of the
15:55 - Inside the Kursk
explosions. But, according to the Prosecutor General, no one could have foreseen the torpedo explosion. Therefore, no one will be held responsible for the deaths of the men -- case closed.
16:14 - Nadezhda
Nadezhda: I think that our military and top officials thought about saving their positions first of all. They cared about saving their jobs, not about saving our children.
16:28 - Nikitin
Nikitin: Huge amounts of money, huge barriers and huge fences are used to hide the crime, negligence and theft. This is the kind of fence that is being built to hide state secrets. Its a fact.
17:05 - Mourners
Colgan: The inquiry outcome has given no comfort to the grieving families. Roman and Irina Kolesnikov believe much is still hidden and are pushing for another investigation.
17:25 - Kolesnikov
Kolesnikov: To be honest, I am ashamed for our state. It catches criminals whove stolen a sack of potatoes and puts them in jail for 3 years but when 118 people are killed during an exercise, when Russias prestige is dealt a huge blow, when a submarine that costs 1.5 billion dollars is destroyed, they cant find anyone responsible.
18:15 - Mourners
Colgan: But the Russian Government no longer wants to discuss this tragedy. With this second anniversary, it considers the disaster dead and buried just like the men of the Kursk.
18:59 - KURSK
Reporter: Jill Colgan
Camera: David Martin and Mark Slade
Editor: Stuart Miller
Research: Irris Makler
Producer: Ian Altschwager