Hope in the Russian Kursk Submarine Tragedy?

Perhaps the only shred of consolation to be pulled from the Kursk submarine tragedy is the hope that one day this catastrophic disaster will be considered the catalyst from which fundamental changes in the Russian political ideology are borne.

From the first, this situation was mishandled by the powers that be within the Russian government, beginning with the Russian navy's failure to recognize the severity of the situation. What the Russian navy knew and when is almost irrelevant, because it became abundantly clear as speculative details began to emerge that the foremost priority of the Russian government was secrecy.

When informed that one of the prides of his military was in grave danger, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided it would be best to remove himself from the situation and go on vacation. His first instinct was not to reassure family members of the submariners and the rest of his country that their government would do everything in its power to rescue any survivors. Instead, it was to avoid becoming a "distraction" as the media converged to cover the breaking news.

The ineptitude with which the Russian government dealt with this horrible tragedy can be viewed as a microcosm of the prevailing political climate in that country. Although still considered a formidable fighting force, the Russian navy is poorly financed, which proved to be as large a factor as any in the developments that occurred both above and below the Barents Sea. As the Russian and world media continue to blast the Russian government for its handling of the Kursk situation, there will certainly be many areas of negligence determined and many individuals at fault.

We can only hope that this unspeakable tragedy will begin to move the Russian government toward a fundamental reorganization and the development of a modern political and social ideology.