DATE=8/22/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA SUB / IMPACT
NUMBER=5-46888
BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared
Wednesday a national day of mourning for 118 sailors
who died aboard the submarine Kursk, which sank in the
Barents Sea 10 days ago. The commander of Russia's
Northern Fleet has appealed to the crewmembers'
families for forgiveness, and the government has
promised compensation. But those gestures have not
stemmed rising public anger over the Russian
government's handling of this crisis. From Moscow,
correspondent Laurie Kassman looks at the political
fallout from the Kursk tragedy.
TEXT: Sixty-year-old Boris Orekhov is upset Russia
took so long to accept foreign help -- not until four
days after the Kursk went down [on Saturday, August
12th]. He is also stunned to learn the navy did not
have adequate rescue equipment.
/// OREKHOV ACT IN RUSSIAN - ESTABLISH &
FADE ///
"It is a revelation," Mr. Orekhov says, "that we do
not have deep-sea divers and other equipment." "Why,"
he asks, "can Russia produce powerful ships but not
the equipment to save them?"
Not all Russians could watch foreign television
coverage of efforts to reach the sunken submarine, or
keep track of all the conflicting statements Russian
officials made to the outside world. But 23-year-old
Anatoly Musatov, who relied on state media coverage,
did not miss the discrepancies:
/// MUSATOV ACT IN RUSSIAN -
ESTABLISH & FADE ///
"At first, Navy officers made statements, and the
following day they denied them," he says. "Maybe they
were afraid to tell the truth."
/// BEGIN OPT ///
Andrei Nikolayevich [Eds: no surname] says simply, his
government did not do enough.
/// ANDREI ACT IN RUSSIAN -
ESTABLISH, FADE ///
After accidents like this, he says, there is little
trust left.
/// END OPT ///
Defense expert Paul Beaver of the London-based Jane's
Defense Weekly, says the Russian navy's reliance on
Soviet-style secrecy was part of an effort to cover up
the service's inadequacies -- even if that cost human
lives.
/// BEAVER ACT ///
They didn't want the Russian public to know that
they were incapable of rescuing these people,
that they didn't have the capability. They
didn't want them to understand just how
vulnerable they were, in terms of their brand-
new, twin-hulled submarine.
/// END ACT ///
Only a few weeks ago, President Putin hailed the
nuclear fleet as the symbol of Russia's power. Navy
officials want to blame the Kursk accident on a
collision, but independent experts suspect an
explosion in the submarine's torpedo compartment.
Mr. Beaver says the accident underscores the serious
deterioration of Russia's military might, and the
impact of years of severe budget cuts.
/// OPT 2ND BEAVER ACT ///
[There is] no doubt that within the Russian
nuclear fleet they'll have to do some serious
soul-searching, and have to work out what they
have to do in the future. They'll have to
examine the viability of their weapons systems
and they'll have to look at the safety of their
nuclear-propulsion systems and their warheads.
/// END ACT // END OPT ///
It is not only military prestige that has been
damaged.
Russian political analyst Viktor Kriminiuk says
President Putin's prestige has been battered, too.
/// KRIMINIUK ACT ///
So his problem now is to share responsibility.
To share responsibility means that there should
be between three, four or maybe a dozen of the
brass heads to be fired, sacked. And, of
course, that will change his relations with the
military, because they won't like it.
/// END ACT ///
Still, Mr. Kriminiuk does see a positive consequence
of the crisis. It could, he says, help solidify a
break with the past, with the Soviet style of absolute
control and censorship.
Independent Russian T-V has not hesitated to show the
relatives of the Kursk crewmen publicly venting their
anger at top government officials. Newspapers have
listed and criticized all the conflicting official
statements about the Kursk accident -- from when and
how it happened to what the Navy was doing about it.
/// 2ND KRIMINIUK ACT ///
The fact is that one of the very important
aspects of this crisis is the contrast, the
striking difference between the attempts of the
authorities to behave as if we still have the
Soviet regime and, at the same time, the common
people and the press don't want to play the same
game.
/// END ACT ///
Analysts like Mr. Kriminiuk say the Kursk disaster
could serve as a turning point in Russia's effort to
develop a more open society. But they do not expect
major political upheavals.
In Russia, Mr. Kriminiuk says, real change comes
slowly. (Signed)
NEB/LMK/WTW/JP
22-Aug-2000 11:23 AM LOC (22-Aug-2000 1523 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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