Submarine tragedy a political watershed for Putin

By HELEN WOMACK

MOSCOW - Nearly a week after the Kursk sank, Russia's Navy commander finally joined the rescue operation at sea and a top politician from Moscow flew to the Arctic to meet relatives of the lost submariners.

Reporting on the meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Khlebanov and the sailors' mothers, the pro-Kremlin television channel ORT said that it had been "emotional." The independent NTV channel showed one distraught mother screaming at the minister over the authorities' delays and demanding that naval officers take off their epaulettes for shame.

Russia will not be the same after the loss of the nuclear submarine that was thought to be invincible. Just as the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986 changed the Soviet Union, convincing Mikhail Gorbachev that there was no alternative to a policy of reform, so the sinking of the Kursk will be a political watershed for President Vladimir Putin.

The only question is whether he will conclude that Russia needs more of the openness practised by the independent media or whether he will take revenge on those who have humiliated him and seek to bring back censorship.

Russia has come a long way since communist times, when major disasters were covered up, news of them leaking out weeks or even months later in the underground bulletins of dissidents. The world found out about the explosion at Chernobyl only when Sweden detected a radioactive cloud over its territory.

By comparison, today's officials were prompt in informing the public that the Kursk had gone down a mere two days after it actually happened. The Navy appointed a young and personable press spokesman, Igor Viktorovich Dygalo, who became the most familiar face in Russia last week with his updates on the rescue operation and the changing weather in the Barents Sea.

Yet, the handling of public relations was half-baked and still reminiscent of old Soviet habits. Some Russian media were more inclined than others to accept this.

ORT, which goes out on the first channel and is the only station that reaches some of the remoter provinces, is part-owned by the state, the other shares belonging to the oligarch Boris Berezovsky. NTV belongs to his business rival, Vladimir Gusinsky, who earlier this year spent four days in jail on embezzlement charges that the state prosecutor later dropped for lack of evidence. Both men also own newspapers.

Whether because Berezovsky has lately moved into opposition against the Kremlin or whether because his print journalists wrote what they wanted anyway, his dailies, Nezavisimaya Gazeta (NG) and Kommersant, were as critical of the authorities as Gusinsky's Segodnya. "Soviet ideology" was weighing down the naval chiefs' thinking, said NG. Admirals were worrying about the political consequences of their decisions instead of acting to save lives, said Segodnya.

The glaring difference was in the coverage by the television channels. ORT and the state channel RTR played down the offers of foreign help, so that many ordinary Russians were left with the impression that they had been made more or less at the same time as Putin accepted them. NTV, by contrast, made clear that the Kremlin leader had wasted valuable time by not grasping immediately the rescue options offered by Britain and Norway.

On ORT, the presenter told the viewers what to think. "I am sure you will all agree that our Russian rescuers are heroes," she said in one comment. NTV avoided any editorialising by its presenter but instead gave the viewers a regular review of what Western newspapers were saying.

NTV was relentless in its criticism. "The speed with which the foreigners have worked reinforces the view that their help should have been accepted sooner," said one reporter. Another suggested that Putin was not travelling to the Arctic to meet the bereaved relatives because he was afraid of them.

Why Putin, a former KGB agent who has been tough in his handling of Chechnya, was passive in this crisis remains a mystery. Whatever the reasons for his lacklustre performance, he has fallen between two stools. By accepting foreign help but accepting it too late, he has pleased nobody. Now, in order to try to redeem himself, he may become more caring and open. But there is also a risk that he might fall back on dictatorial methods, which would affect the already vulnerable independent media.

The signs yesterday were not hopeful. Only the state channel RTR was allowed to film near the scene of the accident. The flow of information from the Navy became thinner than ever and Moscow journalists were ringing Norway to find out what was going on in the Barents Sea.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Online feature: Russian sub in distress

Russian Centre for Arms Control: OSKAR subs

World Navies Today: Russian subs

Russian Navy official website