If I remember correctly, there was something about Kursk nuclear missile gone missing, right ? That was considered a serious security risk, ever since the soviet union collapsed, that someone could have might buy it, or steal it. But that risk began decreasing, since Putin came into the office, which was shortly before the Kursk incident.
There is also something strange about that:
There is also another movie by the same director, and there are some strange similarities with 9/11, when you take into consideration the view of the event by Mr Khalezov, Die Hard with a Vengeance. The story of the missing gold is also reported by some others, like Michael Morris, so I tend to believe it.
And then there you have another movie by Mc Tiernan, you can guess which one:
There were two vietnam vets playing in this movie…I have alway found strange how much emphasis there was on the vision of the alien hunter. Some hell of a coincidence…