#PutinKills Lieutenant Captain Denis Pshenichnikov
As part of the #PutinKills awareness campaign, we would like to tell you about ordinary people who became victims of Putin’s regime in Russia. One of the first tragedies that happened during Putin’s presidency was the Kursk submarine disaster. Here are a few words about Lieutenant Captain Denis Pshenichnikov.
Native residents of Sevastopol, Crimea, parents of Denis Pshenichnikov still live in Kamyshov Bay. Denis’ grandfather was fighting Nazis on torpedo boats in the Black Sea. His father Stanislav also committed himself to the sea sailing for several decades as a senior electrical engineer on fishing boats.
Denis’ mother Natalia learned about the tragedy on August 12, 2000 from a TV news show. She immediately flew to the North. There, on Vidiaevo naval base, she was afraid to turn on TV, because too much time had passed for any hope to remain. Stanislav, his father, was at the time fishing on “Namibia Star” next to Capetown, South Africa. He learned the news from BBC reports.
“As soon as I heard about Kursk, everything died in me. I called home and they confirmed the worst”, Stanislav recalls. “I was offered to be send there, but as I calculated the time to get to Vidiaevo, it became obvious that it did not make any sense. We are all sailors and have our duties. Boys gave me Internet reports on Kursk every day. They were my life those days…”
Recently Masha, Lt. Capt. Denis Pshenichnikov’s sister, gave birth to a boy. He was named Denis…
On August 12, 2000, the Kursk submarine sank in the Barents Sea during a massive Russian Navy summer exercise. It was the first military exercise at such a large scale after the collapse of the Soviet Union. All 118 sailor, officers, and civilian contractors on board were killed.
Two explosions occurred on the submarine were registered by nearby ships, and the second was powerful enough to register by seismographs even in Alaska.
The Russian Navy didn’t recognize the submarine had sunk for more than six hours. It took 16 hours to locate the sunken vessel. The Russian government mislead and manipulated the public and media, and refused international help. The assistance from the UK and Norway was accepted only on the fifth day of the rescue operation. On the seventh day, Norwegian divers finally opened a hatch of the ship and found it flooded. Analysts later concluded that 23 sailors had survived the initial explosions for more than six hours.
The Russian Navy tried to cover-up the accident and offered a variety of reasons for the submarine’s sinking including blaming it on a collision with a NATO ship. However, the most cynical explanation was given by Russian President Vladimir Putin in “Larry King Live” show (“It sank”).
Russian President and Commander in Chief Vladimir Putin was vacationing on the Black Sea when the Kursk tragedy happened. #PutinKills – because he didn’t care about people’s lives. He unwillingly interrupted his leisure time to deal with the issue. His Navy wasn’t ready for the rescue operation. Everything was done slowly and in an inefficient manner. There were endless cover-ups and lies. Putin blamed the media in discrediting Russia and used the tragedy to continue his attack on the independent media.
Act now! Join our campaign to tell people that #PutinKills!
Native residents of Sevastopol, Crimea, parents of Denis Pshenichnikov still live in Kamyshov Bay. Denis’ grandfather was fighting Nazis on torpedo boats in the Black Sea. His father Stanislav also committed himself to the sea sailing for several decades as a senior electrical engineer on fishing boats.
Denis’ mother Natalia learned about the tragedy on August 12, 2000 from a TV news show. She immediately flew to the North. There, on Vidiaevo naval base, she was afraid to turn on TV, because too much time had passed for any hope to remain. Stanislav, his father, was at the time fishing on “Namibia Star” next to Capetown, South Africa. He learned the news from BBC reports.
“As soon as I heard about Kursk, everything died in me. I called home and they confirmed the worst”, Stanislav recalls. “I was offered to be send there, but as I calculated the time to get to Vidiaevo, it became obvious that it did not make any sense. We are all sailors and have our duties. Boys gave me Internet reports on Kursk every day. They were my life those days…”
Recently Masha, Lt. Capt. Denis Pshenichnikov’s sister, gave birth to a boy. He was named Denis…
On August 12, 2000, the Kursk submarine sank in the Barents Sea during a massive Russian Navy summer exercise. It was the first military exercise at such a large scale after the collapse of the Soviet Union. All 118 sailor, officers, and civilian contractors on board were killed.
Two explosions occurred on the submarine were registered by nearby ships, and the second was powerful enough to register by seismographs even in Alaska.
The Russian Navy didn’t recognize the submarine had sunk for more than six hours. It took 16 hours to locate the sunken vessel. The Russian government mislead and manipulated the public and media, and refused international help. The assistance from the UK and Norway was accepted only on the fifth day of the rescue operation. On the seventh day, Norwegian divers finally opened a hatch of the ship and found it flooded. Analysts later concluded that 23 sailors had survived the initial explosions for more than six hours.
The Russian Navy tried to cover-up the accident and offered a variety of reasons for the submarine’s sinking including blaming it on a collision with a NATO ship. However, the most cynical explanation was given by Russian President Vladimir Putin in “Larry King Live” show (“It sank”).
Russian President and Commander in Chief Vladimir Putin was vacationing on the Black Sea when the Kursk tragedy happened. #PutinKills – because he didn’t care about people’s lives. He unwillingly interrupted his leisure time to deal with the issue. His Navy wasn’t ready for the rescue operation. Everything was done slowly and in an inefficient manner. There were endless cover-ups and lies. Putin blamed the media in discrediting Russia and used the tragedy to continue his attack on the independent media.
Act now! Join our campaign to tell people that #PutinKills!