Nord Stream Attack: The Case Nobody Wants Solved
Some questions are better left unanswered.
The attack on the Nord Stream pipelines that run deep under the Baltic Sea in late September has all but disappeared from the Western media’s radar, but now Russia is demanding answers and formally accused Sweden of withholding damning evidence on the identity of the perpetrators.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Thursday that Stockholm’s decision not to release the investigation’s findings a a puzzling move and is evidence that they are hiding something from the public.
“Russian experts in the course of an objective investigation may come to uncomfortable conclusions and, finally, reveal to the public the ugly truth about who committed these acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks,” she said, according to Russian outlet TASS.
“Sweden’s refusal to set up a joint group to investigate the sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines is perplexing. There are no doubts regarding the nature of the incident - this was an act of sabotage. Thus Swedish authorities clearly have something to hide,” she said.
Russia has blamed UK special forces of carrying out the attack. Polish war hawk Radek Sikorski actually thanked the U.S. for the attack in a Twitter post.
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Mick Wallace, member of the European Parliament, posted a video on his Twitter account where he expressed dismay over the investigation.
He said the attack resulted in one of the world’s worst releases of methane gas ever and called the incident “environmental terrorism.”
“I, for the life of me, don’t understand why the EU doesn’t want to know who did it,” he said in the video posted on 5 January. He continued, “Is it because we know the answer? Or is it because it’s the wrong answer?”
Wallace also expressed confusion as to how quickly the news story disappeared from the news cycle.
“Initially, of course, the Russians were blamed,” he said. “But common sense kind of prevailed and we kind of thought, ‘If the Russians don’t want any gas, they can kind of turn the tap off at their end.”
DW, the German news outlet, also raised questions about the blast. The outlet tweeted on Tuesday, “Russia has made an initial estimate of the cost needed to repair the #NordStream pipeline. That raises the question: Why would Russia undergo the expensive process of repairing their own pipeline if they bombed it themselves?”
Western media, without providing any evidence, continues to blame Russia for blowing up two of its pipelines. Absent in their coverage is that considering the Russian energy company Gazprom spent €23 billion on building the pipeline infrastructure and some €800 million natural gas still stored in the line that has been destroyed, it would make no sense to blow up what they own.
We have been covering the developments in the investigation in previous Substack posts. One of the more remarkable interactions was when, in November, Christoph Heusgen, the German diplomat, told GZERO World, that he believes that Russia sabotaged its own pipelines, but noted that it will be almost impossible to prove.
He said in the long run, it will likely not make any difference who was behind the attack.
We also reported how there were two frigate-sized ships in the vicinity that had their tracking devices turned off just days before the bombs detonated.
Reuters noted that Moscow wanted to work with Stockholm to investigate the blasts, but “both Sweden and Denmark have rejected the idea of Russian participation.”
TRENDPOST: Officials in Washington have been vocal in their threats that if Russia invaded Ukraine, the Nord Stream 2 project would end. Victoria “fuck the EU” Nuland, who is the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, said in a recently emerged video that “one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”
The Jewish Policy Center noted that the pipelines are up to 360 feet below sea level and would require submersible vehicles. Ukraine blamed the Russians. The report noted that Ukraine would stand to benefit from a damaged pipeline because it would damage Russia economically.
“The fact that this would deprive Europe against deliveries in the near future, supposing an end of sanctions, makes this an unlikely move for any country that depends on NATO for security,” the report said.
The article floated the idea that the U.S. has at least some incentive to damage the pipelines to prevent European countries from wavering in the Russian energy sanctions in the cold winter months. But that would be a potentially disastrous public relations imbroglio for Washington.