Sub Normal

Soviet propaganda always insisted on the home team's supremacy — which only bred sarcasm. In 1959, at the height of Nikita Khrushchev's spectacular U.S. visit, this joke mocked official dispatches: "Challenged by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower to a running competition, Comrade N.S. Khrushchev masterfully thwarted the dastardly Imperialist plot to shame the U.S.S.R. and won the Second Prize. The U.S. President came only one before the last."

That 44-year old joke came back bitterly as I watched Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov thanking those who, at the very last minute, saved seven Russians, trapped aboard The Prize AS 28 rescue mini submarine deep in the Bering Sea last Sunday. "I thank the Pacific Fleet, first of all," Ivanov said, and added: "Everybody did well. The British, too, among others."

This hardly does justice to the facts. The Russian Navy brass hastily put together a team to man the only operational rescue sub of the two the Pacific Fleet had. The brass sent the sub on a mission to an underwater surveillance system, with the crew either not knowing exactly where it was, or unable to see it. When the sub got stuck, the brass kept the fact under wraps for 32 hours before Russia came clean and asked for foreign help.

Meanwhile, the brass could not do any better than trying to hook the sub and drag it to shallower waters, which failed. Only the arrival of the British Scorpio unmanned submersible saved the crew; its precise navigation allowed it to cut through fishing nets and steel cables and set the Russian sub free. And for all that the Brits get second billing?

Indeed, why did the Brits need to come to the rescue at all? It's five years to the week since the Northern Fleet's Kursk submarine died with 118 sailors aboard, because Russia did not have proper rescue equipment. Retired Admiral (now Senator) Vyacheslav Popov, who commanded the Northern Fleet at the time, has said that little has changed since the Kursk tragedy. The Navy, he contends, has bought deep diving suits, but still does not have a proper vessel to operate them. It's also been widely claimed that Russia cannot afford equipment, such as Scorpios, or oxygen-supply systems, for which it had to rely on Japan.

But it's not as if Russia's Navy has gone wanting. On the contrary, Russian President Vladimir Putin pays a lot of attention to Naval affairs. Has not he had, since the Kursk died, had the Konstanstinovsky Palace built as his Marine residence at his native St. Petersburg at the cost of $350 million? Last June, Putin aid Vladimir Shevchenko confirmed to the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta biweekly that a new yacht, The Pallada, was built for Putin; Russian media reports that Putin's yacht flotilla runs into some $80 million. Shouldn't Russia swap this luxury for rescuing equipment? It might suffice to save not only Russia's subs, but British, or U.S. subs, too, should the need arise.

Of course, there are some silver linings to the dramatic events of last week. Five years ago, 118 submariners died aboard the Kursk for the sake of false pride or, possibly, real military secrets. This caused massive indignation at home and abroad. Now, the memory of that indignation forced the Kremlin to understand that human lives are the priority. Seven live fellow citizens are more important to this country's security and future than anything that might have been exposed regarding the surveillance network. It's a reminder that people who help each other at the hour of need are not each other's enemies. There's a long way to go yet, but this is a good step.