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Kursk salvage raises questions

(TIME.com Europe) -- Russian divers working from the Norwegian offshore platform Regalia in the Barents Sea, retrieved four bodies from the Kursk nuclear submarine that sank in August. A hand-written note, found on the body of Lieutenant Captain Dmitry Kolesnikov, reads: "There are 23 people here ... None of us can get to the surface."

The note was the first concrete evidence that some of the 118 crewmen of the Kursk lived at least a few hours after a devastating explosion tore through the forward part of the nuclear-powered submarine on August 12.

Written from 1.15 p.m. through to about 1.50 p.m., it tragically refutes the official version of the disaster -- that the Kursk sank late at night on August 12, and that the crew died instantly, or nearly so, justifying the Russian Government's early unwillingness to accept foreign help in a rescue effort.

The first astonished question ordinary Russians asked about the Kolesnikov death note was why the brass failed to keep it under the wraps. The answer that came to mind was: only because of the presence of foreign witnesses. Otherwise, we would have never heard of it.

Russians take it for granted that lies and falsehoods -- and disregard for human lives -- come naturally to their political and military leaders. The Kursk tragedy confirms this.

Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, commander of the Northern Fleet and a former submariner himself, is widely respected in the navy. But when this respected sailor already knew what had happened to his best submarine and best crew, he still told a TASS correspondent on August 13, that the Northern Fleet had successfully completed sea exercises.

Retired Captain Igor Kurdin, an authority on submarines, was approached by the media to comment on the August disaster. Later, Kurdin told Russian TV correspondents that in the first days of the tragedy he willingly supported untrue versions of events offered by the navy brass because he thought he was doing that for the good of the cause.

Lying for the good of the cause was obviously ingrained too deeply by Soviet-era brainwashing to be overcome by a decade of glasnost. Or, rather, glasnost only serves to make lies more public.

Other questions the bewildered Russians are asking themselves is: why does the government fail to admit honestly that the main aim of the current salvage operation is to recover secret logs, communication codes and military equipment? What's wrong with that? Doesn't every country have the right to secure its national defence? Why not say so right away, rather than having the smokescreen of a humanitarian operation?

In the 14 months of Vladimir Putin's tenure first as prime minister, then acting president and now president, over 10,000 Russian men have been killed or wounded in the senseless Chechen war -- along with uncounted thousands of the Chechens. But the habitual response of the brass is, "So what? Russian women will produce more children."

Lieutenant Captain Dmitry Kolesnikov, a grinning boy who married his wife Olga just last April and turned 27 just two days before the Kursk disaster, did his duty as an officer and a human being. His military commanders and political leaders did not.

The traditional way for a Russian officer to conclude a speech or address is to click his heels and say: "I have the honour." No, they do not. Neither the brass, nor those who command the brass.

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