"Shameful and disgraceful" -- these are the words many Russians are using now to describe the attitude of their government toward the sunken nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea. Slow and incompetent rescue attempts, an inability to assess the scope and nature of the damage and, above all, a stubborn unwillingness to accept foreign assistance -- all these descriptions characterize the Kursk rescue attempt and reek of the worst days of the infamous Soviet regime.

Of course, the comparison is not quite correct. All naval catastrophes (and all technological disasters in general) were the best guarded state secrets in the Soviet Union, and people not directly involved normally learned about them only years -- if not decades -- later, and as often from Voice of America broadcasts, which were only half-jammed.

Now reports on the sunken Kursk dominate all major national news programs. Comments and interviews abound and criticisms of high officials are loud and unrestrained. Yet none of this helped the 118 men trapped within the monstrous hull of the Kursk, who have been confirmed dead. Freedom of speech does not amount to much unless it can influence a government's performance.