Nord Stream: ‘No Evidence’ Linking Russia to the Attack, ‘Never Made Sense to Me’
Nord Stream: ‘No Evidence’ Linking Russia to the Attack, ‘Never Made Sense to Me’
A Polish official took to Twitter to thank the U.S. after the explosion.
NOTE TO READERS: Each week, The Trends Journal magazine provides its subscribers with news analysis and trend forecasts without any corporate influence. We answer only to our subscribers. Please consider signing up here.
It may have been the perfect crime.
Detonate explosives on the floor of the Baltic Sea in the dead of night and blame Russia for attacking European infrastructure.
We have reported extensively on the Nord Stream pipelines attack:
Did Blinken Text Truss After Explosion?
Who Sabotaged Nord Stream Pipelines?
The Washington Post published a report today that cited 24 diplomatic and intelligence officials from around the world and none pointed to any conclusive evidence that Russia is to blame. In fact, there are new doubts about Russia’s involvment.
“We know that this amount of explosives has to be a state-level actor,” Pekka Haavisto, the Finnish foreign minister, said. “It’s not just a single fisherman who decides to put the bomb there. It’s very professional.”
Another European official said, “There is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage.”
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said it appeared no European countries were interested in conducting a proper investigation, Reuters reported.
"After the explosions on Nord Stream - which, it appears nobody in the European Union is going to objectively investigate - Russia stopped gas transportation through the northern routes," Lavrov said.
Christoph Heusgen, the German diplomat, told GZERO World a few weeks ago that he believes that Russia sabotaged its own pipelines, but noted that it will be almost impossible to prove.
His guess is that it was targeted by countries that have been against the pipelines from the beginning. He said if a Western country was responsible for the explosion, it would create major tension in the alliance.
“Objectively, it's going to be very, very difficult to do this research. It's at 100 meter below the surface...It will be very difficult to find out,” he said.
He also noted that even if a particular explosive was found, there’s a chance the guilty country intentionally used the device to cover its tracks. He said in the long run, it will likely not make any difference who was behind the attack.
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 and 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.
The Trends Journal reported earlier this month that the U.S. State Department rejected the claim that Liz Truss, the former British prime minister, text messaged Secretary of State Antony Blinken ‘It’s done’ shortly after the attacks on the Nord Stream.
Ned Price, the spokesman from the State Department, said in a statement that Russia’s “baseless accusations against the United Kingdom, and before that the United States, are just another attempt to distract from their brutal war against Ukraine.”
Kim Dotcom, a tech entrepreneur who lives in New Zealand, took to Twitter on 30 October - about a month after the attacks - to claim that the Russians learned that the UK blew up the pipelines through Truss’s iPhone message to Blinken “before anybody else knew.”
“iCloud admin access rocks!” he posted.
Radoslaw Sikorski, a member of the European Parliament, took to Twitter to show the gas leak in the Baltic Sea, and wrote: “Thank you, U.S.A.”
Speculation over who was responsible has permeated social media with many users posting earlier threats by President Joe Biden that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would not go forward if Russia invaded Ukraine.
“ If Russia invades and that means tanks and troops crossing the border of Ukraine, again there will be there no longer Nord Stream 2,” Biden said. “We will, we’re going to end it.”
A reporter asked him, “How will you do that?”
He responded, “I promise you, we’ll be able to do it.”
Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, also said “one way or the other” the project will not move forward.”
The U.S. has long opposed the pipeline and how it made Germany more dependent on Russian energy. The sabotage attack occurred just as Norway and Poland moved forward on the Trans Baltic Pipeline.