World News 23-08-2000 Putin`s Leadership In Question On Day Of Mourning who: President Vladimir Putin what: Faces widows of Kursk`s dead sailors where: Russia when: Yesterday snippet: "President Putin last night met relatives of the 118 men killed on the Kursk nuclear submarine," says Alice Langnado in The Times, "in an attempt to allay the growing criticism of his handling of the disaster." In what The Telegraph`s Marcus Warren calls "the worst 10 days of his presidency," Mr Putin has been nationally criticised for incompetence, sloth and indecisiveness which many feel contributed to the tragedy in the Barents Sea. "Putin`s visit came amid an astonishing admission from his top rescue official that the Kremlin knew the Kursk crew was dead two days before British divers and their LR5 mini-sub were called in," says The Express, "and six days before they arrived". "Forgive me for not saving your sailors," Admiral Vycheslav Popov, commander of Russia`s Northern Fleet, told the 500 relatives of dead servicemen at Vedyayevo naval base yesterday, from which the sub made its final mission. "As the British and Norwegian divers head for home, Norway is considering a request from Russia for assistance in recovering the bodies from inside the submarine," writes Marcus Warren. "The Norwegians have already said this would be a difficult and dangerous task, possibly requiring divers to cut their way in, and would, in any case, take weeks to accomplish". A day of national mourning has been declared in Russia today and Mr Putin, reports the BBC, "is expected to visit the scene of the accident to lay a wreath on the waves of the Barents Sea where the nuclear submarine sank on 12 August." [... more]

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