In August 2019, the Bill Clinton digital library website published transcripts of telephone and personal conversations between the President of the United States and Vladimir Putin.. According to one of the transcripts, at a meeting in September 2000, Putin and Clinton discussed the sinking of the Kursk submarine.

The published documents are dated 1999-2001, previously most of them were classified as " Putin and Clinton discussed the sinking of the Kursk on September 6, 2000, during a meeting in New York in the presidential suite of the Waldorf Astoria. It happened almost a month after the tragedy..

The meeting was attended by Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia Sergei Prikhodko and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.

According to the transcript, Clinton expressed condolences to Putin in connection with " “When something like this happens, people around the world imagine themselves in the place of victims and their loved ones, but I also imagined myself in your place.. You must have faced a lot of criticism. It always happens, "

“I didn't have a good choice. I am trapped between bad and worst options. I was told that if I immediately launched a small submarine there and at least tried to save the guys, my ratings would rise, "

According to Putin, the authorities "

“Now it looks like the entire crew died within 60 or 90 seconds.. We could not tell the relatives, but there was a hole in the hull about two meters in size, through which the first three compartments of the submarine flooded. I don't even know how we can pull out the bodies. There is a lot of cod in these waters - there may be no flesh on the bones, ”the Russian president said..

He noted that, " "

In turn, Clinton said that "

The VTsIOM polls conducted after the tragedy did show that Putin's trust rating was not affected by the death of the Kursk.

After meeting Clinton in September 2000, Putin gave an interview to TV presenter Larry King. When asked what happened to the Kursk, Putin said with a smile: "

The nuclear submarine " As a result, all 118 people on board were killed.. The authorities officially announced the death of the Kursk sailors only on August 22. According to one version, Putin knew that most of the sailors were killed, but for some time he hid this information and downplayed the scale of the tragedy..