Swedish Prosecutors: Nord Stream Pipeline Leaks Caused by Explosives, Sabotage
“The explosions … were the result of “gross sabotage,” Swedish prosecutors confirmed.”
Almost two months after the Russian Nord Stream pipelines blew up in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish prosecutors have found traces of explosives at the underwater site and declared that the incident was an act of “gross sabotage.”
The explosions that ripped apart the pipelines at four places had a force of almost “500 kilograms of TNT” and measured 2.3 on the seismic Richter scale — comparable to “a powerful bomb from the second world war,” the German and British media outlets reported.
Days after the blasts, leading German news weekly Der Spiegel has claimed that intelligence officials in Berlin assess that the blasts were caused by “highly effective explosive devices” and may have been ordered by “state actors.”
The French TV channel Euronews reported the latest Swedish findings:
The explosions that caused significant damage to the Nord Stream pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in late September were the result of “gross sabotage,” Swedish prosecutors confirmed.
“Analyses that have now been carried out show traces of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found,” public prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist, who is in charge of the ongoing preliminary investigation into the explosions, said in a statement Friday.
There are no indications of who is to blame for the incident at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.
“The preliminary investigation is very complex and extensive. The continued preliminary investigation must show whether anyone can be served with suspicion of a crime,” the statement said.
Swedish investigators will continue to cooperate with domestic authorities and other countries. The prosecutor’s office has asked for patience.
BREAKING: Sweden confirms Nord Stream 2 sabotage; explosives remains found on the damaged pipeline. pic.twitter.com/MtEG0cMDoQ
— DW News (@dwnews) November 18, 2022
German, the biggest stakeholder in the Nord Stream project besides Russia, has refused to speculate on who may have carried out the underwater blasts. “We have no information on possible initiators of this act of sabotage,” a spokesman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reaffirmed on Friday.
Russia, which has pointed fingers at the U.S. and the UK for the incident, declared that the Swedish findings vindicate its claims.
The Associated Press on Friday reported the Russian reaction:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday it was “very important to find those who are behind the explosion.”
Sweden’s findings of “a sabotage act or a terrorist act — you can call it whatever you like” confirm “the information that the Russian side has had,” Peskov said. Moscow needs to wait for a full damage assessment to decide whether to repair the pipelines, he said.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, a joint German-Russia project, reportedly cost billions to construct. The Nord Stream 2 alone took over 11 billion euros to build, media reports confirm. The Russian pipelines, now flooded with highly-corrosive seawater, may never be operational again, official German sources believe.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Germany relied on the national gas to meet close to one-third of its total energy needs. The Russian supplies made up to 55 percent of country’s total gas imports.
The disruption of the Russian gas supply though its key pipelines has thrown European, and particularly the German economy, in a tailspin. “The German government and leading economists say that Germany is heading toward a recession,” the German public broadcaster DW News reported earlier this month.
Germany, much like the rest of continental Europe, has imposed energy rationing and is gearing up for blackouts and long power-cuts ahead of Christmas. The Berlin Police have been preparing for a “state of emergency” in the wake of a spiraling energy crisis, the German newspaper Die Berliner Zeitung reported mid-September.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
So they’re not the Nordstrom pipelines? 🙂
I don’t hear any pianos, so, no.
We go so much wag the dog you can’t believe anything.
“GOOD tinfoil hat, good boy! Here’s a gum-wrapper treat for being right every time!”
Sorry, maybe I wasn’t clear. That was me congratulating my own pet hat. I’m proud of him!
YA THINK?
Wake me when someone goes to jail or before the bombs fall.
No doubt all the countries that could be behind this already know the real story. But for some reason, nobody’s talking.
I’m going into Citizen Free Press / The Liberty Daily comment mode here: it’s The Jab.
I hope so. My 2022 card has “pipeline clots” on it.
Joe did that!
We already knew all of this, but I don’t expect the guilty parties to confess now any more than they already have (Brandon the pedophile)
“…show traces of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found…”
Pardon me for being skeptical, but I’d like to see those ‘foreign objects’ and have them examined by outside experts. Also ‘traces of explosives’ can be anything. What *kind* of explosives are we talking about? Every nation tends to use different boom-stuff. Gas chromatography can isolate out the components down to parts per billion after all.
Until the specifics come out, all we have is more smoke. If none of the specifics ever do come out, it is manufactured smoke.
This all reminds me of James Bond villains.
Exactly. I’m not buying this garbage at all.
They need to show it was someone else that is causing their pain other than their own stupidity or gullibility. They can’t say that Trump was right.
I am betting on Russia, they made a deal to sell to China, they are mad that the Europeans did not roll over, Russia no longer needed the pipeline and wanted to cause as much damage as possible to Europe.
What was Europe thinking when they put themselves in this situation? Utter stupidity!
No, the Russians wouldn’t blow up their own pipeline in any circumstance, especially when it was a good card to hold over the rest of the Europeans.
There is only one country who would do this and we all know that country is the United States. Joe Biden already confirmed he would not let the pipelines operate under any circumstance.
My Take: it was the EU/UK/US, to accomplish two things:
1.) Remove the one item that Russia had over (mostly) Germany, and forcing Olaf Scholz to stiffen his spine and support Ukraine, and…
2.) To further boost the WEF’s push to “Green-ify” the EU, regardless of the cost to recalcitrant and rebellious EU citizenry in lives and livelihood, this coming Winter. They will have no heat and they will be happy, at the EU’s command.
Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.
Those pipelines were the best road to peace. They had to go.
Not sure how the pipelines were the “best road to peace,” unless you mean that the Krauts would’ve negotiated and signed another Neville Chamberlainesque Minsk III accord handing Ukraine to the Russians – without first consulting the Ukrainians. Since that’s how Merkel handled Minsk II.
Zelenski is a corrupt liar!
We can’t afford proxy war!
Biden’s GloboH new world order!
Ukraine is a fake country!
It’s a quagmire!
Ukrainians are Little Russian mutt-people.
*panic disclaimer:
WE ARE PUSHING PUTIN TO THE PROXY-BRINK, COMRADES!
WWIII!
HE NOOK US!
Tiki
The Ukrainian government did participate in Minsk II. They admitted they were using the time to build strength. France and Germany also signed. Why should the Russians trust the West?
On point two it seems that hasn’t worked since Germany is now racing to open coal fired power plants.
Can’t recall wactly who, but one credible source I read stated that stellite imaging of the area showed some “war games” type maneouvres in precisely that area over a few days prior to the blasts. Then they identified ine US warship by name that was hovering exactly above the blast sites for some time. Then shortly before the explosions that vessel left the area. I also recall mention of a Brit naval vessel in close proximity to th US ship for some extended period of time.
When I read all this I was pretty well convinced my initial suppositions were confirmed.
A few weeks ago I read an article that claimed just that, and there were photos to show that. Photos of the pipeline indicated that it had been blown up from the inside of the pipe. The claim was that Russia had attached explosives to devices that are used to clean the pipeline, aka pigs. There are economic reasons and contract incentives for them to sabotage the pipeline, rather than just shutting down the gas. https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/9631298/nord-stream-pipeline-drone-inside-putin-bond/
All Russia had to do was turn it off no reason to blow it up
From what I understand, it was down for maintenance for several weeks before the boom. A simple announcement of “‘cracks’ found and gosh it would be unsafe to turn it back on don’t you know” would have done it for the price of a sheet of paper.
It was down due to sanctions.
Seems obvious that it was sabotage of some kind, when both pipelines independently blew up on the same day.
The interesting question is who did it. I don’t think this sheds any light on that.
And of course, technically, it was THREE pipelines out of four that got taken out.
“Three times is enemy action.”
I’m sure the fourth was just experimental error.
It….was….soap poisoning!
I read a report somewhere that a phone call leaked from the last PM of England to Biden. Minutes after the explosion she called him and said “it’s done”. Anyone else hear this as the report quickly disappeared.
The report was based on a tweet by Kim Dotcom. This is what Russia claims as evidence; Dotcom has admitted that he has not seen hard evidence that either the UK or the US was responsible or that such a tweet between Truss and Blinken ever happened.
That’s right, Kim Dotcom who I wouldn’t trust much as a source, thought it was interesting, thought
All you have to ask is: CUI BONO?
(Who benefits?)
It would in no way be to Russia’s interest to blow up their own pipeline, when merely turning off the spigot would suffice.
Hence, we have the US, the UK, the EU, who would be the only others capable of such an attack.
I would eliminate the EU as suspect, since in the long run this hurts them most, should a negotiated peace in UK ever occur.
That leaves the US and UK. They also would have motive, as the EU will suffer most grievously from the energy being cutoff, and had been seen to be going wobbly on the whole UK/Russia fiasco, so this event in no uncertain terms, locked them into going along with the program – like it or not.
So, whether done jointly, which seems the most likely Avenue of suspicion, don’t ever expect any results from this so-called investigation as to who the culprit(s) were.
You forgot the Chinese, Brazilians, Israelis, Aussies and a number of other countries with quite good SF that could get it done.
Actually, it makes more sense for Russia to sabotage the pipeline rather than shut the pipeline down. As reported in Forbes:
“One may be tempted to ask why would the Russians bother with sabotage and denial? After all, hostility toward Ukraine and Europe is neither novel nor secret. The shutoff of gas from sabotage does not fundamentally change Russia’s stated aims or enacted strategy. The answer lies in the strength of Western financial institutions, Russia’s lack of leverage or soft power, and the devastating impacts sanctions are having against Russia. If Nord Stream is shut down suddenly through “force majeure,” a sudden uncontrollable stop that is the fault of neither party, then Russia can void its obligations toward European stakeholders without legally breaking contracts, thus dodging the many penalties in doing so.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2022/09/29/russian-sabotage-of-the-nord-stream-pipeline-mark-a-point-of-no-return/?sh=57355c6b5dba
Quote from Biden Olaf Scholz (German Chancellor) Feb of 2022:
“If Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again — then there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said at a press conference with Scholz. “We will bring an end to it.”
Wait. We had someone with years of experience in the industry, assure us the explosions were hydrated methane plugs, or something. Legaldog, or some such. That and notoriously horrible Russian maintenance. Although, was the pipeline all Russian, or was it a joint venture.
Is that author also claiming the Biden laptop has all the characteristics of Russian disinformation?
Ex-DNI, James Clapper noted that a group of 50 current and former intelligence community officials signed a letter Tuesday attesting that the pipeline explosion had “all the earmarks of a Russian exploding dolphin disintegration campaign.”