Reports in Russian news agencies indicate that inadequate batteries on board a mini-submarine were responsible for the failure of the first attempt to rescue the crew of the Kursk.
The official news agency ItarTass reported yesterday that old batteries, capable of providing electric power for less than three hours, caused the initial rescue attempt to be aborted.
The submersible Priz managed to reach the Kursk's aft hatch from which it was hoped the sailors would escape, but did not have enough time to do its job, the agency reported. It was forced to cut short its operation and return to the surface to have its batteries recharged. This contradicted earlier reports that the initial rescue effort failed due to poor visibility and rough seas.
After the Priz's failure a newer and more sophisticated vessel, the Bester, was brought into operation but its efforts also failed.
Russian newspapers and individuals have been extremely critical of the navy's operation, blaming military pride for the fleet's refusal of aid from the West. The influential daily Segodnya went further and pointed the finger of blame directly at President Putin.
"No right-minded official would," the newspaper wrote, "demand NATO's help" on his own. "Only the President can take the decision to ask NATO for aid," the newspaper added.
The British Ministry of Defence, however, admitted last night that it was not sure if the LR5 submersible sent from Scotland yesterday would be compatible with the Kursk's escape hatch.
Mr Putin had, up to now, associated himself strongly with the armed forces and has been pictured in naval uniform on the conning tower of the nuclear submarine Karelia during exercises in the Barents Sea in April.
Segodnya is part of the MediaMost group which was the only major media organisation to oppose Mr Putin in the presidential election. Its owner, Mr Vladimir Gusinsky, was recently imprisoned for a week in Moscow's Butyrka prison before all charges against him were dropped.
The morning newspaper Vremya MN was also strongly critical of the rescue operation saying: "The ghost of dismissal is haunting the offices of high-ranking fleet officials. Their subordinates have to ask their bosses for approval for the smallest technical decision concerning the Kursk."
Many analysts, including the country's most prominent independent defence expert, Mr Pavel Felgenhauer, have pointed to the Russian military's obsession with security as the reason for the unwillingness to allow foreign ships at the scene. The idea of foreigners getting a view of the Kursk, which is Russia's most up to date submarine, was something the admiralty had difficulty in coping with.
The daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta echoed Mr Felgenhauer's view saying: "Soviet ideology still weighs heavily on the chiefs' thinking: their subordinates can die but they must save their precious military hardware."
Under the headline, "Fear paralyses naval officials in Kursk rescue operation", the newspaper said that "curt official statements on the situation involving the Kursk submarine could not hide the fact that the situation was tragic and on the verge of desperation". The chances of a favourable outcome were seen by the navy as quite low and diminishing with every passing hour.
The business daily Kommersant claimed that the Kursk left port with no batteries to power its oxygen-generating system. "The commander of the fleet, faced with a lack of batteries, decided to let his submarine leave without them," it said. Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Kommersant are owned by the billionaire businessman, Mr Boris Berezovsky, who was a strong supporter of Mr Putin in the presidential election campaign but in recent weeks has been speaking out against the Kremlin administration.
Another independent newspaper, Novye Izvestiya, claimed that if a NATO submarine had gone down in the same place at the same time the crew would already have been rescued.