Upon cursory examination, the ongoing operations in the Barents Sea to raise the hulk of ill-fated Russian submarine Kursk, stands in stark contrast to the tragic events of last August when the ill-fated nuclear-powered submarine sank with all hands. Back then, the authorities didn’t want to deal with the public and chose to ignore it. As a result, officials didn’t even try making lies about the circumstances surrounding the sinking sound like the truth. At that time, President Vladimir Putin displayed callous indifference to the events. Who can forget Putin’s failure to cut short his vacation when the disaster struck, and his calm “It sank,” in answer to CNN’s Larry King query as to what happened to the submarine. As a result of the disaster, Putin’s popularity took a nosedive.
Eventually, the Kremlin took notice of the public relations disaster it had on its hands. With operations to raise the Kursk well under way, presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky — who is responsible for public relations — looks as important a participant in the events as top brass from the navy and the representatives of Dutch company Mammoet. Today, the operation has an official Internet site (www.kursk.strana.ru), and Yastrzhembsky personally inspected the ship that will take journalists to the site of the operation, as well the international press center about to open in Murmansk. Kremlin’s public relations “spin doctors,” along with the admirals, are willing to turn the operation into a breathtaking show. After examining the hull, divers will attach special robots to the submarine, which will cut the first section away from the rest of the vessel. But the first section contains powerful torpedoes and it’s not known if the explosion that sank the submarine, destroyed all of them. Another risk comes from the second and third sections, which contain 24 missiles that could have been displaced by the disaster. There’s no guarantee that torpedoes or missiles won’t be accidentally cut into during work to slice away the first section.
The North Sea Fleet command has dispatched a naval formation to the area comprising all the fleet’s most powerful ships. Twenty-three ships form the group, including the atomic cruiser Pyotr Veliky, the missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov and two aircraft carriers. It’s not entirely clear what exactly needs protecting, however. If it’s military secrets the admirals have in mind, there can’t be many left on the Kursk after the Russians allowed foreign divers to train for the operation on the Oryol submarine, which is the same as the Kursk. Russia experts see the move as way to show the public and the Kremlin that they know how to command large naval formations.
But Kremlin experts in Washington believe that organizers are anxious to have everyone forget why the operation is being undertaken in the first place. Originally, officials said the submarine would be raised so as to establish exactly what caused it to sink. But if any part of the battered vessel can yield information on the disaster, it’s the first section — precisely the section that is to be left at the bottom of the sea. They say the first section was most severely damaged during the explosion and would be likely to break off during the raising operation. Admiral Mikhail Barskov said that this “would upset the dynamic of the vessel’s rise.” Now, Russian admirals are saying that the first section will be raised at a later date in the distant future. It’s worth remembering that Putin had said that the issue of personal responsibility of naval commanders would be decided only when the reasons for the disaster became clear. These reasons could now be left with the first section on the ocean floor. No one will be punished for what happened. Nor will Admiral Kuroyedov ever have to answer for his repeated assertions that the Kursk sunk after being hit by an American or British submarine.
Latest explanation for why this risky and complicated operation is necessary is that it sank in an area of busy shipping traffic and is a danger for cargo and fishing vessels. Of course, a sunken atomic submarine is never going to improve shipping safety, but the submarine’s reactor was flooded. Environmentalists worry, however, that the lifting operation could reactivate the reactor. The Norwegian government hasn’t received information from Russia guaranteeing the forthcoming operation’s safety. Judging by the fact that they wanted to postpone the operation, members of the international consortium working on the project also have doubts about safety.
