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Submarine Kursk, which sank in 2000 (Photo: kasparov-ru.appspot.com)
A month after the Kursk tragedy, Putin met with Clinton and discussed the submarine.
The tragedy with the Kursk submarine occurred almost 20 years ago, and the families of the deceased sailors blamed the authorities for not providing assistance in time. All 118 crew members on board died. This disaster became the largest in the history of the Soviet and Russian submarine fleet.
A month after the disaster, Vladimir Putin met Bill Clinton in New York in the presidential suite of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Representatives of the administrations of the two presidents also attended the meeting on September 6, 2000. The daily Meduza obtained the transcripts of the conversations between the two presidents. It’s worth noting that Bill Clinton was concerned about the dead sailors and their families, while Putin was concerned solely with their rating.
Clinton: I’m sorry for everything you went through for the loss of the Kursk. When something like this happens, people all over 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. 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 went out to the people at the bottom of the sea and to everyone else as well.
Putin: I didn’t have a good choice. I was caught between bad and worse options. They told me that if I had launched a little submarine there and even tried to save the boys, my grades would have increased. You shouldn’t be allowed to do something like that for the sake of public relations. We must give priority to the real salvation of people. I appreciate your sincere support. Interestingly, subsequent polls showed that this incident did not affect my situation. But I am very afraid that something like this will happen again.
Clinton: Now we are working in a different environment. If a building explodes in Moscow, it is as if it is happening to our relatives. Or if people in Mozambique are forced to climb trees to escape the floods … In many ways this is good. It reminds us that others are people too. After that, it’s harder to hate. But sometimes it can be difficult for a leader to do the right thing because of all these strong feelings.
Putin: We feel powerless during this disaster. Now it seems that the entire crew died in 60 or 90 seconds. We couldn’t 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 were 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 meat on the bones. We tried to curb all this fuss, but some people are weird and just fed it. It’s just a fact of life.
We will remember, earlier we wrote that Putin was nominated for the Nobel Prize.
They also said that Gordon told why Putin hates Lukashenka.
