KURSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd August, 2018) Russian President Vladimir Putin visited on Thursday the monument in Kursk commemorating the servicemen who died as a result of the Kursk submarine disaster and laid down flowers.
The Kursk nuclear submarine sank on August 12, 2000 in the Barents Sea leaving 118 people killed. The submarine was lost after an explosion in a torpedo room, which caused heavy fire and a further blast of the ammunition.
In March, Putin said that this disaster was caused by the poor state of the Russian armed forces at the time, when he just started to perform his duties as the president. Putin then recalled that after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the country faced great difficulties in economy, social sphere and in the army.
The Kursk submarine disaster is one of the deadliest submarine incidents in the world's history, second only to the loss of USS Thresher in 1963, which left 129 people dead.
