ton rescue and research craft got entangled in what the Russian navy believes are cables belonging to the coast guard's sonar system antenna. The antenna is secured by a 60-tonne anchor which hampered attempts to free the craft. In contrast to the secrecy surrounding the August 2000 Kursk submarine disaster, Moscow this time quickly agreed to consider Western offers of help. Four Japanese navy ships also set sail for the area but were not expected to arrive until early next week. The latest crisis underscored the Russian navy's lack of readiness for underwater emergency operations despite the bitter lesson of the Kursk tragedy. The warship's entire 118-man crew died after a faulty torpedo blew up in the bow during exercises, sinking the giant nuclear-powered submarine in the Barents Sea. A rescue attempt was made at the 110-metre deep wreck, although it later emerged that all the crew died in the blasts and flooding or suffocated a few hours later. But the Russian military took days to seek help from better equipped foreign diving units, trying in vain to dock at the Kursk using inferior technology - reportedly employing the same type of Priz submersible now stranded in the Pacific.
