The Russians have lost something like 15 submarines over the last 40 years, only a few have been officialy confirmed. Kurk, Komsomolets and this mini submarine.

In most of the cases the submarines have been lost with all hands. There is a memorial to those lost boats in the Russian Navy Museum in St Petersburg at Admiraltskaya.

There was no brownie point scoring when the Kursk went down only genuine offers of aid which at that time was accepted too late. This time the story was different and seven lives were saved from a very unpleasant death.

Whatever the situation most navies, both merchant and miltary, around the world will offer aid to those in distress and then think about the politics afterwards. Unless you have ever served in a navy of any kind then it is hard to understand that even though on opposite sides most mariners have a common view of life and death at sea. One that often trancends politics.