On Monday August 14, Russian officials announced that one of its Northern Fleet submarines had been involved in a serious collision during naval exercises and sunk to the bottom of the Barents Sea the day before. Russian naval commanders first reported that the Kursk, an Oscar II class nuclear-powered submarine was resting nearly 350 feet below the surface with both reactors shutdown and secure. While initial government reports stated that surface vessels were in radio communication with sailors aboard the Kursk, and that lines containing oxygen and electricity had been lowered to the disabled submarine, further disclosures from the naval high command and Russian press dispelled these claims throughout the week.

It was soon discovered that the Kursk, the most recent addition to Russia's submarine fleet, had actually gone down on August 12, a day earlier than previously reported. It was also learned that surface vessels were only communicating with the Kursk through sonar pings and that the crew was not receiving fresh oxygen. As photos of the Kursk's outer haul showed signs of extensive damage to the forward section of the sub, seismograph readings from a Norwegian ship in the area during the time the sub sunk showed evidence of two large underwater explosions within seconds of each other.

With hopes of rescuing possible surviving crewman, the U.S., Great Britain and several other western nations offered help in reaching the Kursk. But Russian officials under the authority of president Vladimir Putin, who continued vacationing in the Black Sea region, declined such overtures. Not until August 16 did the Russian government accept offers from Britain and Norway to launch a rescue mission. Nine days after the Kursk sunk, this team was finally able to open the sub's outer hatch to discover that the entire vessel is flooded and all 118 hands aboard had perished.

As the families of the deceased sailors are coping with their loss, the Russian people and media are firing accusations at the government for what has been perceived as their mishandling of the entire event. Most of all, many Russians are questioning what they view as a gross lack of caring and responsiveness by Putin, who only arrived in Murmansk, home of the Northern Fleet, on August 22 to greet mourners. While the Russian government continues to assert that the Kursk was lost after having collided with a U.S. or British sub shadowing their maneuvers, the Russian press reports the popular western theory that the sub sank due to explosions triggered by an internal malfunction or torpedo detonation within the vessel's forward section.

On One Hand...

The way in which the Russian navy and Moscow government, under the direct command President Putin, have handled the entire tragedy of the Kursk is completely negligent and reprehensible. The release of misinformation, distortion of facts and fierce adherence to an explanation that lacks evidence and is designed to release the navy and government of any culpability, proves that despite efforts to dispel the image, Putin is attempting to rule Russia with Soviet-era style and control tactics. It was a false sense of pride in a navy that has been knowingly under funded for the past decade that prevented Putin from accepting offers of help from western nations. Not only did he ask for foreign help when all hopes for survivors was gone, he remained outwardly detached from the tragedy, issuing occasional and vague statements in regards to salvaging the sub. Considering that the Russian people are dealing with an active terrorist bombing campaign in Moscow and still realizing the magnitude of their human losses in Chechnya, the loss of the Kursk will further destabilize the government and topple the rule of Putin.

On the Other Hand...

While the loss of the Kursk and its crew are unfortunate, Vladimir Putin will remain in power and further define his leadership abilities as the nation copes with the tragedy and its underlying causes. On a geopolitical level, Putin faced very limited choices in addressing the loss of the Kursk. In light of his campaign in Chechnya and Russia's economic plight, admitting that his own navy is incapable of retrieving the sub and its crew would be publicly confessing a serious weakness that could be manipulated by both external and internal factions looking to topple Moscow's rule. Having only been elected in March, Putin has faced numerous challenges to Russian authority and sovereignty that he inherited from the previous Yeltsin regime. While it is undeniable that the massive Russian military is drastically underfunded, and that vessels such as the Kursk have been operating without regular maintenance, these are direct results of Russia's foundering economy. Putin has stated that he will unveil a national economic plan this fall intended to move Russia towards a stronger economy and fiscal stability. Despite the outrage of the Russian people over the human cost and embarrassment of the Kursk tragedy, they will continue to support Putin in the hopes of attaining a viable economy.