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Aug 8, 5:34 AM EDT

Fitness of Russia's Navy Questioned

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press Writer
    

    

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (AP) -- As the Russian navy scrambled to save seven men trapped for three days in a mini-submarine under the Pacific ocean, Alexander Pirogov watched bitterly from a dilapidated apartment on the edge of town.

"Everything has been destroyed. They can't save anyone," the retired submarine officer said of the Russian fleet.

Unlike the 2000 sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk, when all 118 aboard died, Russia's latest undersea drama ended happily Sunday with the red-and-white AS-28 mini-submarine bobbing to the surface of the gray sea. Its seven passengers emerged from the hatch alive and in fairly good condition, though a bit cold.

The key element in the successful rescue operation was a sophisticated robotic vehicle flown urgently to this remote peninsula from Britain, 12 time zones away. It cut away the obstructions snaring the sub, allowing it to surface.

At Russia's request, the United States also flew in remote-controlled underwater vehicles for the rescue, but they arrived after the British equipment and were not used.

The need for foreign help underlined the troubles of a navy that once was formidable but has fallen prey to money shortages and, Pirogov suggested, to bad decisions.

But Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday funding problems could not be used as an excuse.

"Stop whining about money," he said, addressing critics in general. "We have money now, we just need to learn how to use it efficiently."

Russia has an underwater robotic vehicle similar to the remote-controlled Super Scorpio that Britain used in the rescue, Ivanov said. But it is deployed with the Northern Fleet and disassembling it for rail transport to an airport would have been a longer process than it took for Britain to send its apparatus.

He said improving the navy's rescue capability "is one of our priorities and I will demand they are maintained at the highest level."

President Vladimir Putin ordered Ivanov to launch an investigation and the daily newspaper Kommersant cited military sources as saying Monday that Navy Chief Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov faced dismissal after this latest embarrassment for the fleet.

The navy has scrapped a large number of Soviet-built ships because of desperate funding shortages that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse, and sea rescue vessels were among the first victims.

"The nation must have its own sea rescue capability," Pirogov said.

The AS-28 mini-submarine that became ensnared is itself designed for undersea rescues, as well as other duties. The navy has another AS-28 that it initially said would be brought into the rescue operation, but then admitted that it was not fit for action. No further details were given.

"Our rescue forces practically don't exist," Alexander Pokrovsky, a former submariner turned popular novelist and screenplay writer, told The Associated Press by telephone. "I would like to warn submarine crews that they take serious risks when they go down."

The successful rescue mission came after three tense days that started Thursday when the 44-foot submarine got stranded in 590 feet of water about 10 miles off Kamchatka's east coast. Six sailors and a representative of the company that made the sub were on board.

The men put on thermal suits to protect themselves against temperatures of about 40 degrees and were told to lie flat and breathe as lightly as possible during the rescue effort in order to conserve oxygen. To save electricity, lights were turned off and contact with the surface was kept to a minimum

"It was cold, cold, very cold. I can't even describe it," one crew member said after they reached the shore.

The Russian navy initially tried to raise the mini-submarine to the surface using nets, but their efforts failed.

The British Super Scorpio, sent in response to Russia's urgent call for help, arrived Saturday and spent six hours the next day cutting away the fishing net cables that had snarled the Russian vessel and its propeller.

Similarly, in the Kursk rescue effort, Russian mini-submarines tried in vain for several days to hook up with the Kursk's exit hatch while a team of foreign divers did the job within hours. They found no survivors. Russian navy officials claimed that all Kursk crew who had survived the initial explosions died within hours. However, some reports claimed they probably remained alive for several days.

"Thank God, they asked for foreign help this time and it was quick to come," Pokrovsky said.

Putin was criticized at the time of the Kursk sinking for reluctance to seek international help and for remaining on vacation as the disaster unfolded. The president has been silent through the present crisis as well, although his spokesman Alexei Gromov said Putin was grateful to all those involved in the rescue operation.

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