Two of the pipelines, which are known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, called Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational.
After explosions, in late September, severely damaged undersea pipelines built to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe, world leaders quickly blamed Moscow for a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage. With winter approaching, it appeared the Kremlin intended to strangle the flow of energy to millions across the continent, an act of “blackmail,” some leaders said, designed to threaten countries into withdrawing their financial and military support for Ukraine.
But now, after months of investigation, numerous officials privately say that Russia may not be to blame after all for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines.
“There is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage,” said one European official, echoing the assessment of 23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries interviewed in recent weeks.
In the months after the explosions, which resulted in what was probably one of the largest-ever single releases of methane gas, investigators have combed through debris and analyzed explosives residue recovered from the bed of the Baltic Sea. Seismologists have pinpointed the timing of three explosions on Sept. 26, which caused four leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
No one doubts that the damage was deliberate. An official with the German government, which is conducting its own investigation, said explosives appear to have been placed on the outside of the structures.
But even those with inside knowledge of the forensic details don’t conclusively tie Russia to the attack, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share information about the progress of the investigation, some of which is based on classified intelligence.
It has been difficult to attribute the attack from the beginning. Southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, the initial explosion happened in the dead of night. More than 12 hours later, scientists found two further explosions to the northeast of the island.
Many actors may have conceivably carried out the attack given the relatively modest depth of the damaged pipelines—about 80 yards at the site of one explosion—possibly with the help of surface ships or underwater drones.
Read More: And Ukraine loses Bakhmut
The leaks occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. European nations have been attempting to map which ships were in the region in the days before the explosions, in the hope of winnowing the field of suspects.
You know who Swedish officials blame? United States of America. Yes, you heard that right. Sweden became the first European country to blame Biden for sabotaging the pipeline. Swedish officials acknowledged that the mysterious blasts in September were the result of “gross sabotage,” saying that explosive traces had been discovered as part of the ongoing investigation.
It is to be noted, this is not the only source which blames America for the blasts. Last week, the award-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published an article, based on information from a single anonymous source, arguing that the Biden administration and the CIA were responsible.
Hersh won the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for the role he played in breaking the story of the Mỹ Lai massacre, an incident in which US soldiers killed between three and five hundred unarmed civilians.
Read More: Targets missed, job dismissed! NATO fires Jens Stoltenberg
He asserted that last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines.
Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community about how to best achieve that goal. For much of that time, the issue was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible, Hersh wrote.
Besides, many media outlets shared claims that former British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, is a suspect in the 26 September Nord Stream explosion. According to sources, a phone hack revealed Truss sent a text to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken a few minutes before the explosion saying “It’s done.”
There are many reasons to believe the US was behind the blast.
You see, President Biden and his foreign policy team, including Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Under Secretary of State for Policy Victoria Nuland, had been vociferous and consistent in their opposition to the two pipelines, which ran side by side for 750 miles under the Baltic Sea from two different ports in northeastern Russia close to the Estonian border, passing close to the Danish island of Bornholm before ending in northern Germany.
German distributors were able to sell excess gas, at a profit, throughout Western Europe thanks to the direct route, which avoided the need to travel through Ukraine. German distributors were able to power their companies and heat their homes with an abundance of inexpensive Russian natural gas.
America’s political fears were real: Putin would now have an additional and much-needed major source of income, and German
y and the rest of Western Europe would become addicted to low-cost natural gas supplied by Russia—while diminishing European reliance on America. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. Many Germans saw Nord Stream 1 as part of the deliverance of former Chancellor Willy Brandt’s famed Ostpolitik theory, which would enable postwar Germany to rehabilitate itself and other European nations destroyed in World War II by, among other initiatives, utilizing cheap Russian gas to fuel a prosperous Western European market and trading economy.
Nord Stream 1 was dangerous enough, in the view of NATO and Washington, but Nord Stream 2, whose construction was completed in September of 2021, would, if approved by German regulators, double the amount of cheap gas that would be available to Germany and Western Europe. The second pipeline also would provide enough gas for more than 50 percent of Germany’s annual consumption.
Read More: Provocation is to NATO, as barking is to dogs
Thus the only solution which was deemed useful for Washington was to destroy the pipelines.. Action that could be traced to the administration would violate US promises to minimize direct conflict with Russia. Secrecy was therefore essential.
Besides, the environment was fruitful as every nation would have obviously suspected Moscow, given its recent proclivities vis a vis Ukraine. However, this is not the first time the US has been associated with such nefarious games. Bombing of pipelines was a common occurrence when the US was in Nicaragua.
Anyway, Russia is leaving no stone unturned to unmask the truth. Moscow will not allow the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines to be buried, the Russian Embassy in Washington said recently.. The statement came after US State Department spokesman Ned Price accused Russia of spreading “lies” about the incident.
Truth triumphs. Truth can be bothered but not defeated. Very soon, the entire globe would come to know how the American state, even in the 21st century, commits acts of terror.
