On August 12, 2000, the Russian nuclear-powered K-141 Kursk submarine sank with all its 118 crew members during a training exercise in the Barents Sea. When American TV host Larry King asked Putin about what happened with the submarine, Putin replied with a smirk: "It sank."

After the tragedy, the submariners' widows picketed, demanding that those responsible for failing to help the sailors be punished. Russian journalist Sergei Dorenko, who would later die in a mysterious accident while driving his motorcycle, said at the time that Putin called the widows of the victims "prostitutes who were paid ten dollars."

"He called Channel One and said that they had hired prostitutes to come to discredit him", - Sergei Dorenko, a Russian journalist.

Putin's reaction back then was probably the first sign of what Putin would become.
https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1955325439138054471

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