PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (9 Aug 2005) -- Without an anonymous phone call by a tearful woman to a local radio station, the world may not have heard about the trapped Russian submarine until it was too late to save its seven crew, the journalist who took the call claimed on Tuesday. Guzel Latypova, a local journalist, says the mysterious caller shattered an official silence and in doing so pressured the authorities to look abroad for help in a rescue bid. The telephone rang at Radio 3, where Latypova is news director, about 24 hours after the AS-28 mini-sub became trapped 190m under the Pacific. "A woman called in tears. She was saying that a mini-sub had got stuck with seven men aboard in the Bay of Berezovaya," Latypova, 32, recounted. The mystery caller said she had got the news from "someone" in the Russian military. 'She heard on the local television at 7pm. No one gave her any official warning' "She saved these lads. A monument should be raised to her. If she had not called it would have remained a secret, I'm sure." Separately, Moscow media reported that Russian navy ships were prohibited from trying to drag up the stranded mini-sub for fear of damaging an underwater surveillance antenna that had ensnared it. Despite initial plans to lift the craft closer to the surface on cables to allow divers access, Moscow top brass vetoed the option, effectively dooming the crew, security sources revealed. The men were reportedly informed of the decision by radio as they lay in the trapped vessel in darkness for 76 hours. Each man wrote a farewell letter to his loved ones, it emerged after the rescue. The mini-sub got tangled in cables and netting of a giant underwater anti-submarine radar antenna while performing repairs off the Kamchatka peninsula last Thursday. Latypova, who also works for the Kamchatka Peninsula region's STS television, was not sure at first what to make of the sensational tip-off from her tearful caller. "That day there was hardly any news. I called my colleague at Ria Novosti news agency, Oksana Guseva, and we tried to verify the report through our own sources." | | Yelena Milashevskaya, the wife of the submarine's captain Guseva managed to get through to Rear Admiral Viktor Gavrikov, commander in chief of the armed forces for the north-east of Russia. "Immediately his voice changed. He said 'no comment' and put the phone down. That convinced us it was serious," Latypova said. Five minutes later, she had broadcast over the radio, and soon afterwards the report was spreading across Russia through news agencies and television stations. It was only thanks to the media that the wife of the submarine's commander, 25-year-old Vyacheslav Miloshevsky, then discovered the news. "She heard on the local television at 7pm. No one gave her any official warning," Latypova said. When the worried family tried to find out from the navy what the chances were of seeing their loved one again, a military psychologist arrived. "This is Russia - pray!" he told Miloshevsky's wife Yelena, according to Latypova. "That's the sort of psychological help they got." Only a few hours later did the Russian military in Moscow and Pacific coast city Vladivostok confirm the report. But in Petropavlovsk-Kamtchatsky, the military port at the centre of the drama, local military authorities did not say a word about the drama until Tuesday - two days after the rescue by the British. Media pressure may have persuaded President Vladimir Putin to act. |
