Excellent postings from all and I can only echo the sentiment.

Sending in additional aid is not going to make any difference, and will perhaps make things worse. As even Nikita himself once said, "A committee is an animal with four hind legs."

The Russian technology below the surface is as developed as any on earth, but no one can control the conditions in the Barents Sea. The old habits of the cold war do die hard on both sides and the original multiple explanations of what happened did little to alleviate the "fears of Russian duplicity." However, the real fiasco here is the need on both sides to conduct dangerous simulations of war.

May the coming days provide a rescue of the sailors and the occasional thought as to why we put young men in harms way.

Spaw