Whistleblower saved mini-sub crew

Yahoo! News [Hat tip: Ultima Thule] is carrying a report claiming that the only reason the Russian government asked for international help is that a whistleblower broke the news to the press.

Guzel Latypova, a journalist in the port city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, says the mysterious caller shattered an official silence and in doing so pressured the authorities to look abroad for help in mounting the rescue.

The telephone rang at Radio 3, where Latypova is news director, about 24 hours after the AS-28 mini-sub became trapped 190 meters (625 feet) 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 to AFP. The mystery caller said she had got the news from "someone" in the military.

"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."

The news comes on the same day that prosecutors announced they will be carrying out a criminal investigation into how the mini-sub was trapped in the first place.

An initial investigation revealed "negligence in the organisation of the submarine’s work", said Pacific Fleet deputy naval prosecutor Roman Kolbanov.

Prosecutors said they were looking at the possibility that rules were broken within the Russian navy when only one submersible was sent out, not two.

Early inquiries "revealed that a series of people involved allowed negligence in the organisation of the submarine’s work," said Mr Kolbanov.

"On this basis, the decision was taken today to open a criminal inquiry."

Assuming that the whistleblower story is accurate, I wonder if the investigation will expand to cover how the story broke to the press? 

I’m in two minds about whether this will happen - as I’d imagine are the Russian authorities.  On the one hand will be the desire to punish whoever was involved in leaking the story.  On the other hand, to do so would strongly indicate that the authorities had no real intention of asking for help in the first place - that they would have been happy to let the submariners die rather than lose face.

Tagged as: Military