After the Nord Stream gas pipeline was blown up last month (Sept 26), questions have been raised over who did it. Both the West and Russia agreed it was sabotage, which means it was not an accident.
It was a pre-planned terrorist attack to permanently terminate any hope of Europe going back for Russian gas. And it’s safe to conclude two countries were not involved – Russia and Germany.
It can’t be Germany because sabotaging the pipeline would freeze the Germans to death during the coming winter. It can’t be Russia because they can easily switch off the flow of gas to Germany to punish the European Union.
As expected, the West was quick to point fingers at Russia even though they can’t offer a good justification to blame the Kremlin.
The culprit that blew up the Nord Stream pipeline would benefit the most from the sabotage. There’s only one country that fit the bill – United States. After Nord Stream was crippled, the Europe is now at the mercy of the U.S. for the supply of gas.
French president Macron has just gone ballistic, complaining how Europe is left paying 4 times higher prices for its natural gas.
The steel pipe itself has a wall of 4.1 cm (1.6 inches) and is coated with steel-reinforced concrete up to 11cm thick. Each section of the pipe weighs 11 tonnes, which goes to 24-25 tonnes after the concrete is applied.
The undersea pipelines are designed in such a way that they are not accidentally damaged and leaks are rare. It was deliberately blown up with explosive devices.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the U.S. has to do all the dirty works. On Saturday (Oct 29), Russia defence ministry finally revealed that America sidekick – Britain – was involved in the attack.
Moscow said “British specialists” that blew up the pipeline were the same British Navy team that had attacked the Russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea earlier on Saturday using Ukrainian drones.
Russia said – “According to available information, representatives of this unit of the British Navy took part in the planning, provision and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 this year – blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines”.
Nine UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) and seven autonomous marine drones were involved in the attack.
Interestingly, Sweden and Denmark have both concluded that four leaks on Nord Stream 1 and 2 were caused by explosions, but have refrained from saying who might be responsible.
Strangely, Sweden said on Oct 14 that it will no longer take part in a joint investigation of the Nord Stream pipeline leaks and does not want to share results of its own investigations with other countries.
If indeed Russia was responsible for blowing up its own pipeline, exactly why was it so difficult for Sweden and Denmark to blame the sabotage on the Kremlin? The only explanation is not only there isn’t any proof that Moscow was involved, but all the leads were actually pointing to the U.S. and U.K. intelligence or military in the terror attacks.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline between Russia and Germany is 51% owned by St Petersburg-headquartered Gazprom, while Nord Stream 2 is owned by a Swiss subsidiary of the same company.
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Gazprom, which had cut gas flows to just 40% in July, has further cut it to just 20% in an effort to punish Germany – the E.U. biggest economy – for imposing sanctions on Russia.
Nord Stream 1 effectively stopped pumping gas to Europe “indefinitely” from August 31 after maintenance work, reducing the pipeline’s capacity to 0%. Putin said Russia will not resume gas supplies to Europe until sanctions are lifted.
Meaning Putin’s game plan was to blackmail Europe to end the sanctions, betting the EU would eventually blink as the coming winter could trigger peoples’ uprising. And there are signs that the plan was working.
High energy prices and mounting costs of living have fueled civil unrest across Europe over the winter, including street protests and strikes.
Moscow has repeatedly said Western allegations that Russian was responsible for the attacks were “stupid” because it had nothing to gain but everything to lose by destroying its own pipelines.
On the contrary, Russian officials have said Washington had a motive as it wants to sell more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. Of course, both Washington and London have denied involvement.
On Sunday (Oct 30), it was exposed that former British Prime Minister Liz Truss had sent a text message saying – “it’s done” – to none other than the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, just 1-minute after the Nord Stream attack.
Kim Dotcom, a self-proclaimed “Internet Freedom Fighter”, said the text message is the reason Russia believes the U.S. was involved.
The UK’s Mail similarly reported on Sunday that private messages between Truss and other international foreign ministers, including some about Ukraine, fell into foreign hands because many dumb government officials, including Truss, still prefer using iPhones over military-encrypted phones issued by the NSA (National Security Agency) or British intelligence GCHQ.
Kim Dotcom, who was born Kim Schmitz in West Germany, said – “Liz Truss used her iPhone to send a message to Secretary Blinken saying ‘it’s done’ a minute after the pipeline blew up and before anybody else knew”.
Because iPhones use iCloud, Russian and Chinese hackers could easily access Apple iCloud to obtain the information.
Immediately after it was exposed that Truss’ iPhone might have been hacked, leading to the embarrassing leaks, Chair of the Defense Select Committee, Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, told Sky News on Sunday that Russia is “getting better and better at these cyberattacks and hacking“.
However, UK opposition parties have demanded an investigation into the reported claims.
Sources said that up to a year’s worth of messages was downloaded from Truss’ phone and they included criticisms of then-Prime Minster Boris Johnson by Truss and Kwarteng.
Truss’ phone also contained secret details of talks about the war in Ukraine, including arms shipments, as well as private messages with Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor during Truss’ 44-day administration.
Almost immediately after the Nord Stream 1 and 2 were blown up, a former Polish Defense Minister, Radek Sikorski, has set tongue wagging. A fierce critic of Putin, Sikorski, who was Minister of National Defense from 2005 – 2007 and served as Deputy Minister of National Defense and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, blasted a tweet, saying – “Thank you, USA”.
Currently an elected member of the European parliament, Sikorski was pointing his finger at the U.S. as the culprit behind the sabotage of Nord Stream 1 and 2.
On Feb 7, President Joe Biden promised to prevent Nord Stream 2 from becoming operational if Russia invaded Ukraine. The POTUS said – “If Russia invades, then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it”.
A reporter then asked – “But how will you do that, exactly, since the project is in Germany’s control?” Biden confidently answered – “I promise you, we will be able to do that.”
Interestingly, a day after the sabotage, Germany magazine Der Spiegel has reported that the CIA warned Germany weeks ago of a coming attack on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines.
From the angle of who benefits, the accusations that Britain was responsible in the bombing of Nord Stream is far more credible than the claims of Russia rendering inoperable tens of billions of dollars’ worth of key infrastructure it has developed over almost three decades since 1997.
Given the UK’s intimate relationship with the U.S., it’s hard to believe London had blown up Nord Stream without Washington’s approval.
It’s worth mentioning that right after Nord Stream was attacked, Blinken happily said – “It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs”.
Originally published by Finance Twitter on October 31, 2022
Republished by The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.com.