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AFP Whistleblower broke secret of Russian sub and 'saved men's lives' Tue Aug 9, 7:08 AM ET PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMTCHATSKI, Russia (AFP) - Without an anonymous phone call by a tearful woman to a local radio station, the world may have heard t oo late about the Russian submarine stranded in the Pacific to save its seven crew, the journalist who took the call claimed.
Click Here Guzel Latypova, a journalist in the port city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky , says the mysterious caller shattered an official silence and in doing so pressured the authorities to look abroad for help in mounting the res cue. The telephone rang at Radio 3, where Latypova is news director, about 24 hours after the AS-28 mini-sub became trapped 190 meters (625 feet) unde r the Pacific. She was saying that a mini-sub had got stuck wi th seven men aboard in the Bay of Berezovaya," Latypova, 32, recounted t o AFP. The mystery caller said she had got the news from "someone" in th e military. If she had not called it would have remained a secret, I'm sure." Latypova, who also works for the Kamchatka Peninsula region's STS televis ion and the Russian news agency Interfax, was not sure at first what to make of the sensational tip-off. I called my colleague at Ria Novosti news agency, Oksana Guseva, and we tried to verify the report through o ur own sources." Guseva managed to get through to Rear Admiral Viktor Gavrikov, commander in chief of the armed forces for the northeast of Russia. Five minutes later, she had broadcast over the radio, and soon afterward the report was spreading across Russia through news agencies and televis ion stations. It was only thanks to the media that the wife of the submarine's commande r, 25-year-old Vyacheslav Miloshevsky, then discovered the news. "She heard on the local television at 7:00 pm No one gave her any offic ial warning," Latypova said. When the worried family tried to find out from the navy what the chances were of seeing their loved one again, a military psychologist arrived. he told Miloshevsky's wife Yelena, according to Latypova, who went to offer the family support. Only a few hours later did the Russian military in the capital Moscow and Pacific coast city Vladivostok confirm the report. But in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the military port at the centre of the d esperate, three-day rescue operation, local military authorities did not say a word about the drama until Tuesday -- two days after the incident was over.
Vladimir Putin 's decision to dispatch Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to the scene, and -- crucially -- in the military's painful acknowledgement of the need fo r foreign help. As soon as a high-tech British naval robot cut the cables and nets trappi ng the submarine, the seven men inside were saved. This was not the first scoop for Latypova's Radio 3, which has bucked the Russian trend of extreme loyalty to the authorities and caution about r unning any embarrassing news. "This is not a region here, but the edge of Russia, and that changes ever ything. "Don't forget that the inhabitants here are the descendants of adventurers."
Guzel Latypova, a news editor in the local Kamchatka Radio 3 hosts he r radio show in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Without an anonymous phone cal l by a tearful woman to a local radio station, the world may have heard too late about the Russian submarine stranded in the Pacific to save its seven crew, the journalist who took the call claimed.
The infor mation contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agenc e France Presse.
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