Global Village Is The Only Way For World's Peace.

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World people prayed on Sunday (August 20,2000) for 118 sailors on board the stricken Kursk submarine---hours after Russian authorities said they had all but give up hope, nevertheless; the misfortune is not Russia business but whole world’s affair, people said “this is a tragedy, and not just for Murmansk.”

The tragic plight of the 118 officers and sailors trapped aboard the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk drew expressions of compassion and offers of assistance from around the world. But for most of this period, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, seemed aloof and distant. He declined, during the most critical days, to cut short his Black Sea vacation and go immediately to the site where his presence could have energized the navy's rescue operations and would, at any rate, have symbolized the government's concern at a moment of national tragedy.

It is too soon to know if more active leadership on Mr. Putin's part could have saved lives. But his performance has been disheartening for those who hoped to see a more democratic Russia shedding the habits of secrecy and indifference to human suffering that marred so many centuries of czarist and Soviet rule. If Mr. Putin hopes to build the strong democratic state he often speaks of, he must learn some hard lessons from the Kursk affair. In a democracy, public appearances and ceremonies are a key part of leadership, and symbolic shows of concern can do much to heal a nation's grief.

Mr. Putin's government was slow in informing its own people and the world of the desperate situation aboard the Kursk. The first official announcements came two days after the vessel plunged to the bottom of the Barents Sea, and British and Norwegian help was not accepted until four days after the sinking. Mr. Putin let two more days go by before breaking off his vacation.

Such public callousness would be unthinkable in any Western democracy. But it is a long, sad tradition in Russia, dating back to czars like Ivan the Terrible, Alexander III and Nicholas II, and Soviet-era tyrants like Stalin. Mr. Putin is not in that league, but as a Soviet-era K.G.B. agent he was raised in the Russian autocratic tradition, which values state interests above human life. Democracy cannot be built on such foundations, nor in the long run can political stability.

There will be other lessons to draw from the Kursk disaster. Undoubtedly, Russia needs to spend more money on maintenance and safety for its submarine fleet. Plans for international coordination in future rescue attempts should be prepared in advance. NATO and Russia both should move away from close shadowing of each other's submarines that can lead to accidental bumpings, although an explosion and not a collision seems to have sunk the Kursk. But the most intriguing question is whether this tragedy can educate Mr. Putin in the arts of compassionate and accountable leadership.