Russian Divers Trapped in Sub in the Pacific

[Mr T.]

Russians admit errors in sub rescue

13aug05

THE Russian navy bungled the rescue of seven submariners stranded in the Pacific, the country's second most senior admiral said in a rare admission of failure.

The British navy helped rescue the sailors last week after they had been trapped three days in a AS-28 mini-submarine entangled in fishing nets and an antenna 190 metres underwater off the Kamchatka peninsula on the Pacific Coast. "We have all the latest equipment which was bought after the Kursk, but it was not used in Kamchatka due to bungling," navy chief of staff Admiral Vladimir Masorin said.

Masorin was speaking on the fifth anniversary of the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine, when all 118 sailors died on board, provoking a storm of criticism against the navy.

He said there was "deception", which prevented the navy command from assessing the real situation, though he didn't clarify what he meant.

The comments marked rare public criticism from Russia's top brass who preside over an armed forces that President Vladimir Putin has promised to reform but which still relies heavily on outdated equipment and poorly trained troops.

A special Russian-run rescue vessel was in place, Masorin said, but had been damaged by improper use. The operators for the vessel were on holiday at the time, he said.

Masorin, heading an investigation into the incident which ended on Sunday, has been widely tipped by local media to become the head of the Russian navy if, as expected, the current chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov is axed.

"Our rescuers, who work on our equipment, train from time to time during working hours and besides that do nothing else but wait for a chance to rescue someone. That is probably bad," he said.

One of the rescued crew questioned why the mini-sub was even doing the work it was.

Gennady Bolonin, who works for the company that made the AS-28 and who was one of the saved crew, said that the submersible was not designed for the work it was doing – monitoring and repairing a secret antenna device.

Putin said this week that medals should be awarded to the British naval workers who saved the Russian crew, some of whom were shown today by local television lighting candles at a Russian Orthodox church to give thanks for their rescue.

But the Navy's handling of the accident was still under the media spotlight on Thursday.

Izvestia newspaper quoted submarine experts as saying Russia lacked trained rescue specialists, while Rossiiskaya Gazeta carried an interview with the wife of one of the AS-28 crew.

Yelena Milashevskaya, the wife of the officer who led the crew, told the paper she was so short of money when the accident happened that she could not feed her children and that journalists loaned her some cash.

"Our husbands were saved by us, the wives, and by you, the press, including the foreign press," she told the paper. "The uproar frightened (officials)."