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It is necessary to protect the strategic energy infrastructure in the Baltic Sea: gas pipelines, LNG terminals, oil ports and even wind farms. It still hasn’t been ascertained who blew up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipes running from Russia to Germany. However, new findings have emerged, which we compiled in a report for the previous week.
Who blew up Nord Stream 2?
Information.dk has revealed that Danish patrol vessels took 26 photos of a SS-750 vessel east of the Bornholm four days before the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines exploded. Reportedly a specialized vessel carrying a robot with grippers able to operate underwater was spotted in the vicinity of the explosion area. The revelations from information.dk were confirmed by the Forsvaret military.
There is no official resolution of the investigation into the sabotage of Nord Stream 1 and 2 conducted in Germany, Denmark and Sweden. However, there are many theories as to why Nord Stream 1 and 2 were sabotaged. Alexander Oliver who analyzes open source data claims that Russia is the main suspect due to suspicious sea traffic near Baltiysk in the Kalnningrad Oblast. He compared publicly available data and determined that on September 19, 2022, the Baltic fleet operated in the Baltic Sea as part of large-scale military maneuvers. He also took into account the activities of divers from the military base in Baltiysk. On September 21, two rescue vessels Aleksandr Frolov and SB-123 set off from this port for a few days in the direction of Bornholm, as evidenced by the identification data of the AIS. A SS-750 ship built at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock in the 1980s joined them as well. All these units have the equipment to operate at a depth of 80 m, where the Nord Stream 1 and 2 are located. On 21 September, the Danish patrol ship Nymphen sailed over the location of the subsequent explosions that sabotaged Nord Stream 1 and 2. Soon after, the Swedish Corvette Visby arrived. Data on the route of this unit were then to disappear from the portal marinetraffic.com. Oliver suspects that the Russian ships mentioned above took part in unclear activities in the vicinity of Bornholm just before the sabotage. They were then to monitor the mentioned ships from Denmark and Sweden, and then from Poland, Germany and the USA.
Meanwhile, a journalist known for material critical of the United States claims that the explosion of gas pipelines from Russia to Germany is the fault of the Americans, a claim made shortly after the Kremlin had said just that. The White House denies it. Seymour Hersh is an 85-year-old journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for his coverage of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam that was to be perpetrated by the US Army. He also described human rights abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Hersh has been criticized in recent years for his non-factual coverage of the U.S. hunt for Taliban leader Osama Bin Laden and his questioning of the regime’s use of chemical weapons in Syria. The journalist’s source on the NS2 sabotage is anonymous. Hersh wrote in a blog post on Substack that he believed the U.S. Navy installed remote-controlled explosives under the guise of a NATO exercise called BALTOPS 22 last June. The sabotage was ordered by President Joe Biden by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in cooperation with the Norwegian Navy. A P8 intelligence plane from Norway was supposed to fly over Nord Stream 1 and 2 on September 26, activating C4 explosives that blew up three of the four threads of these pipelines. The White House had to downgrade this operation so that it did not have to be reported to Congress. Hersh’s report came shortly after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that the Americans had blown up Nord Stream 1 and 2. However, earlier he had said it was the British Navy.
The New York Times and German media claimed they had learned that a “pro-Ukrainian group” was behind the attack on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. The German state broadcaster Deutschlandfunk cites information from US intelligence services and argues that the attacks on the Nord Stream pipeline last year were perpetrated by a “pro-Ukrainian group”. Local newspaper Ostsee Zeitung reported that the group of alleged saboteurs was supposed to consist of one woman who was a doctor, a captain and four divers who entered the country thanks to forged passports and chartered a yacht from a Polish company. “In Rostov, the official authorities do not know anything about the arrival of such a group of people. It is also not known where the ship docked. There is no question it did not dock at the harbor, because it is strictly controlled. The explosive used was supposed to weigh 500 kg, which excludes transport on a relatively small yacht, according to the Ostsee Zeitung. The Ostsee Zeitung has reservations about some of the reports, because when confronted with information on the ground, inaccuracies come to light. The newspaper found no confirmation that the alleged four men and one woman who supposedly blew up the gas pipelines had ever been in the village of Wiek auf dem Darß, as reported in the sabotage theory. Probably, investigative journalists mistook this city and thought about Wiek on the Rügen island.
Keep an eye on the Baltic!
The West has stepped up protection of strategic energy infrastructure after the sabotage of Nord Stream 1 and 2. The European Union and NATO have improved cooperation in this area, and recently there has been new information about measures taken near Poland.
The governor of West Pomerania has decided to designate a no-go zone up to 200 m from the LNG terminal in Świnoujście. The operator of the facility explained this decision. “Gaz-System welcomed the decision made by the West-Pomeranian Voivode, which put a temporary ban on approaching the border of the premises of the LNG Terminal n Świnoujście at a distance less than 200 m. This decision was taken to ensure the protection of the LNG Terminal, which is a strategic facility for the energy security of our country, ” the company sain a statement. “The LNG Terminal in Świnoujście is responsible for the supply of approx. 30% of the current national demand for natural gas, which is a key raw material for the Polish chemical industry and a source of energy for the production of electricity and heat for millions of Polish households. Therefore, considering Poland’s energy security, we understand the justification for this decision,” Gaz-System emphasized.
UK MPs warn of Russian sabotage of offshore infrastructure. A few days ago there was an accident of the freighter “Petra L”, which transported grain from Ukraine to Belgium. According to recent reports, on April 24, the ship hit a wind turbine in the North Sea, and its captain was a Russian. “There is a concern that security could be compromised given what happened to the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea,” said Angus MacNeil, a member of the UK Parliament. The MP was referring to the incident of September 26, when there were a number of explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, which the Russians accuse the West of preparing.
Nine European countries have committed to up the capacity of offshore wind farms times eight in the North Sea by 2050, turning it into “the largest green power plant in Europe”. There were also calls to protect installations at sea from attacks. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced the plan alongside the prime ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and the UK energy security minister in the so-called Ostend declaration. The group also stressed the need to protect Europe’s offshore wind farms and their connections from sabotage and espionage following reports of Russian spy ships in the North Sea and last year’s sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.
Better safe than sorry, so Poland should keep an eye on the Baltic as well!
