The crowd waiting for President Vladimir Putin at that military base in Vidyayevo, in the Arctic Circle, was in an uproar. Almost all of them were family members. 118 sailors who drove the kursk submarine, which sank in a poorly explained accident. Putin, who had been elected president just three months ago, went there to confront them and the reception was, as expected, anguish and revolt. “When will we get them back, dead or alive? Answer as, President!”, yelled a visibly shaken woman, at a moment captured by television cameras. “I will answer you as soon as I know it myself,” Putin said.
The meeting took place in a feverish atmosphere, as indicated by the reactions of the relatives in the previous days, while they waited for news on the whereabouts of the missing submarine. “They make $50 a month and now they’re stuck in that can. Is that why I created it?”, a mother revolted in a meeting with the deputy prime minister in which ended up sedated and transported out of there by military.
It was probably the only time Putin met with Russian military relatives outside of a controlled environment. And it was also one of the few times that the country’s television networks captured the desperation of mothers, women and other relatives of Russian soldiers, directly questioning those responsible for the country.
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Source: Observadora
