Ceremonies took place across Russia Friday marking the fifth anniversary of the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk with the loss of all 118 aboard, a traumatising accident that shattered the nation's trust in its leaders.
The anniversary of the sailors' deaths under the icy Barents Sea was all the more poignant as it came just a week after seven Russian submariners were rescued by British experts from a mini-sub stranded under the Pacific Ocean.
Church services were held in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and in the doomed submarine's home base of Vidyayevo, on the Barents coast, where mourners cast flowers into the sea. Flags on naval vessels and submarines around Russia flew at half-mast and sailors observed a minute's silence.
A new monument was unveiled in the central Russian city of Kursk, from which the vessel took its name, featuring two segments of the submarine and a large bell.
The Kursk, a nuclear-powered and armed giant that was considered the pride of the navy, sank during military exercises off north-western Russia on August 12, 2000 after an explosion in one of the torpedo tubes. But it was the slowness of the rescue attempt, the refusal to seek foreign help, and the inability of top figures, including President Vladimir Putin, to take public command that most shocked Russian and international opinion.
Long after official announcements that everyone aboard the Kursk was dead, 23 survivors were in fact sending desperate appeals for help by tapping on the hull of the sunken submarine, relatives say now.
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