“With an aching heart and… a tearful eye we are following every development. Up until the last minute, we will do everything we can to rescue what can be rescued. We will struggle for the life of each of the seamen and we will hope for the best,” president Vladimir Putin said amidst the unfolding drama of the Kursk submarine, after it sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea on August 12 for reasons we will probably never know.
As we will never know why Putin, whose popularity – enormous for someone who was until recently an unknown – was founded on the wish and hope of rebuilding Russia’s forgotten might, has acted in an outwardly disgraceful manner.
Out of his own whim or advised by his staff, he took an ostrich’s stance and only five long days into the incident cared to come out with a statement recognising the situation as “critical” – but still trying to soothe the spirits, saying Russia had every means necessary to rescue the 118 seamen on board the Kursk.
Why did Putin need five days to recognise the crisis in the Barents Sea? Why did the Russian navy take two days just to acknowledge the accident? Why did it take Moscow five days to realise it couldn’t cope on its own and to eventually accept Western help, which has been available from day one?
Would the Norwegian divers – who managed in 48 hours what the Russians failed in four days – have been able to do something if called for earlier, given the speculation that the trapped seamen may have died in the first minutes following the crash? Why is Moscow trying to find a scapegoat outside Russia?
Overall, who is Russia afraid of?
Any possible answer is pure speculation.
What is certain is that Putin blew a one-off chance to bolster his popularity, even using a tragedy, cynically speaking. Although he couldn’t have done anything, as man and as president, he still could have taken advantage of the situation.
If he were to visit the scene, if he were to be there day and night, if he were to show he was the energetic and tough man he portrays himself to be, the average Russian, perhaps even the victims’ families, however grieved and angry, would still say: here is the leader we need! Here is the strongman Russia needs!
But the Barents accident has exposed a weak Putin, dominated by old Soviet mentality, unable to break through typical Soviet pride, unable to accept help although he knew in the first place it was the only chance for the crew.
And one other thing is certain: the Kursk tragedy has demonstrated Russia’s inability, at least today, to become again a world superpower, next to the United States, as it wants and proclaims to be. During the cold war, the West has feared a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union.
When communism collapsed, it feared the Soviet nuclear arsenal falling into the wrong arms as the country drifted chaotically toward democracy. Today, the West should consider the threat of the decrepit nuclear armament that Moscow is trying to keep on line with ever fewer funds, as the last testimony to its former glory.
What better example is there than the crash of Kursk submarine, one of the best ships in the Russian armed forces, perhaps the pride of its navy, and the incapacity of Moscow’s other equipment to deal with the problem?
With a little extrapolation, the Barents Sea crisis has proven that Russian authorities cannot and are not equipped to guarantee the life of their citizens – trying to prove to the world what a “tough nut” it is, Moscow turned its back on its own people, killing 118 men with their own weapon.
Launched overnight into politics by czar Boris Yeltsin, the Kremlin leader lost in a few days everything he gained in a year. Perhaps even more… Because this is not just about himself, but a whole nation that hoped this energetic, determined, even charismatic president could make the country what it was during the cold war: the world’s second superpower.
But Russians’ dream sank to the bottom with the Kursk submarine, and now lies still, next to the crew’s bodies, on the bottom of the Barents Sea…