Russia mourns, Putin faces wrath

MURMANSK - Flags were lowered and entertainment cancelled across Russia yesterday to mourn the 118 sailors who died in the submarine Kursk.

President Vladimir Putin, who declared it a day of mourning, returned to Moscow after facing the wrath of sailors' families at a marathon overnight meeting in the northern naval base of Vidyayevo, where the Kursk began its final mission.

Criticised for what many saw as a casual approach and a failure to prod generals into action during the week of uncertainty over whether the trapped submarine crew were still alive, Putin struggled at times to make himself heard.

"When will we get them back, dead or alive? Answer as the President," shouted a woman in the crowd, referring to the bodies of the sailors, in clips on state-owned RTR television.

"I will answer as I know it myself," said Putin, sombre and dressed in black. The rest of his remarks were lost due to the noise of the crowd and the tape quality. Russian media allowed in Vidyayevo said the six-hour meeting - an unprecedented gathering of ordinary Russians with their President in a crowded room - ended after midnight.

Many at the meeting were harshly critical of the military's handling of the failed rescue.

Putin acknowledged that naval rescue services were in a poor state but added that no commanders would be prosecuted unless their guilt was beyond doubt.

Top military commanders have taken the extraordinary step of making full, formal apologies, some televised. Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said: "We have failed to protect them. Forgive us."

The Kremlin said Putin returned to Moscow around 6 am (1400 NZT). He had been expected to fly to the area of the Barents Sea where the Kursk sank on August 12 after still-unexplained explosions, and to lay a wreath on the sea as a tribute to the dead.

But Russian ORT television showed wives of dead sailors urging Putin not to do this. They said any such ceremonies should be postponed until the bodies are recovered, perhaps fearing that any ceremony could suggest that officials have given up hope of even recovering the bodies.

Putin apparently agreed and mourning ceremonies at Vidyayevo, including a planned church service, were cancelled.

Television and radio stations halted regular light entertainment broadcasts and local authorities cancelled shows and concerts.

"It is impossible to believe it is all over," Interfax quoted Putin as telling the crowd of up to 600 relatives and local residents. "The grief is immeasurable, no words can console. My heart is aching but yours much more so."

Some Russian newspaper carried on with their criticism of the way officials handled the crisis, the focus shifting from Putin to the military and Government.

"The military are obsessed with one desire - to shift the responsibility from their own shoulders," Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily newspaper said.

Norwegian experts said yesterday they had found no evidence of radiation leaks from the wreck of the submarine.

"None of our analyses show any sign of leaks," said Per Strand, a director of the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority.

He said the authority had tested samples of water taken both inside and outside the vessel and in sediments on the seabed around the Kursk in the Barents Sea.

Environmentalists renewed their calls for the Kursk to be lifted from the seabed quickly, fearing possible radioactive contamination from its reactors. Moscow says they were shut down automatically when the Kursk went down.

Rod Macrae, international communications director of Greenpeace, told Reuters television there was a tonne and a half of highly enriched uranium in each of the reactors.

"That being the case the potential for the melting of the core of these will increase," he said.

Russia has said its main concern is to recover the bodies, but its Navy lacks the deep-sea diving equipment to carry out such an operation.

The Norwegian firm whose divers opened the Kursk's hatch on Monday, only to find the submarine flooded, has agreed to study how to salvage the vessel or bring up the bodies, both projects fraught with risk.

The Kursk's designers, meanwhile, said they were working on ways to lift the 17,000-tonne vessel and move it to shallower waters. Experts said such a complex operation could take months.

- REUTERS

Herald Online feature: Russian sub disaster

Russian Centre for Arms Control: OSKAR subs

World Navies Today: Russian subs

Russian Navy official website