Putin praises international rescue of sub

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked the international resucers who yesterday freed a trapped submarine off the country's Pacific coast.

All seven sailors on board the mini-sub were released unharmed after a three day ordeal.

TV footage showed Putin clenching his fists and saying "great" when he saw the mini-submarine break the surface.

A British Scorpio robotic craft was sent down to the trapped sub, 190m below the surface, to cut the fishing nets it was ensnared in. (See link to graphic top right.)

Putin said after the rescue: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our sailors ... and all those who extended us the hand of friendship.

"In the first place, of course, this means the English people and Great Britain's navy, and also the United States navy and Japan's navy."

Commander Ian Riches, who led the British rescue team, said: "There were a lot of difficulties involved. But it was extremely rewarding and it wouldn't have been possible without the superb cooperation of the Russian Navy.

"We went down using our cameras and our sonar and located the mini-sub near the sea bed tangled up in a quite considerable mess of fishing nets. It was wrapped around her propeller and wrapped around her as well."

US divers also helped in the rescue, while Japanese ships were steaming to the scene.

Riches said the seven sailors on board had a maximum of six hours air to spare by the time their craft was raised to the surface. "They were running out of oxygen," he said.

Underwater footage aired on Russian television showed pieces of net wrapped tightly around the red-and-white-striped submarine's propeller, and the Scorpio pulling them away.

"Today was a very happy event. The intensive work to free our submarine at a depth of 200 metres brought results ... Our comrades in the crew opened the hatch themselves," said Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, commander of Russia's Pacific Fleet.

"They behaved valiantly over these 76 hours under water, we heard no complaints, all we heard was that they were fine... It is worth living for these moments."

The seven submariners walked steadily off their rescue ship down a gangway to a waiting crowd in the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, where many people had feared air supplies would fail before the men could be rescued.

Lieutenant Vyacheslav Milashevsky led the crew down the gangway after standing straight-backed to salute the crowd.

However, Putin faces political criticism over the incident. "This story with the submarine raises a whole series of questions, which have to be answered by the military prosecutors and the defence ministry," Rodina leader Dmitry Rogozin said.

Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov said: "It is completely incomprehensible why the British have the necessary technology, but we don't. If we can't make effective rescue equipment ourselves, we need to buy it abroad."

- REUTERS