Chas Danner
On September 26, a series of deep-sea explosions rocked the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, near the Danish island of Bornholm. The bombings severed three of the Nord Stream projects’ four underwater pipelines, which were built to transport a direct supply of natural gas from Russia to customers in Western Europe — though neither were in operation at the time of the bombing thanks to tensions over the war in Ukraine. Nearly six months later, multiple countries continue to conduct their own investigations into the sabotage, but the mystery of who targeted the pipelines remains unsolved. Recent reporting, however, suggests investigators may be hot on the trail of the saboteurs. Below is what we know about the latest developments and prime suspects.
Was it some pro-Ukraine group?
This week, the New York Times reported that U.S. officials have recently seen new intelligence suggesting that a pro-Ukraine, but not necessarily Ukraine-backed, group was behind the sabotage. According to the Times, the unnamed U.S. officials who have reviewed the intelligence said that the group was likely made up of Ukrainian and/or Russian nationals who were opponents of Russian president Vladimir Putin, but there was no evidence of direct links between the saboteurs and Ukraine’s leadership. (Ukraine has repeatedly denied any involvement in the bombings.) The divers in the saboteur group were not currently working for military or intelligence services, but may have been trained by them in the past, according to the intelligence.
The Times also reported that “U.S. officials who have been briefed on the intelligence are divided about how much weight to put on the new information,” but that they are now more optimistic European and U.S. intelligence agencies will be able to get to the bottom of what happened.
A Washington Post report on the intelligence added that “A senior Western security official said governments investigating the bombings uncovered evidence that pro-Ukraine individuals or entities discussed the possibility of carrying out an attack on the Nord Stream pipelines before the explosions.”
Then there’s the German yacht theory.
The German newspaper Die Zeit reported Tuesday that German investigators believe a team of six people — five men and one woman — carried out the sabotage using a yacht hired by a Polish company owned by two Ukrainian citizens.
According to German media reports, the six as-of-yet unidentified alleged saboteurs — which investigators believe included a captain, two divers, two diving assistants, and a doctor — apparently used forged passports and embarked in the rented yacht on September 6 from the German port city of Rostock. The yacht in question, now identified by Der Spiegel as the 50-foot sailboat Andromeda, apparently docked at the German island of Rügen and the tiny Danish island Christiansø, which is very close to the site of the pipeline bombings.
Another very good find from our Discord (https://t.co/i7sSuFvWWd) -- 2018 photo of the Andromeda. This one has a great sense of scale of the actual size of the yacht.https://t.co/MFNcaxK8fm pic.twitter.com/npxfcifWHY— Aric Toler (@AricToler) March 9, 2023
German prosecutors have confirmed that investigators searched a ship in January that they suspected of carrying explosives, but said they were still analyzing the evidence they seized. A senior government official told the Wall Street Journal that investigators found traces of explosives aboard the yacht. However, as the Journal reports, several large questions remain:
A key operational question investigators are looking into is whether the small boat could have carried the explosives and other supplies needed and whether the six people known to have been aboard would have been enough to carry out the attack, the German government official said. Another possibility is that the boat was part of a larger operation. They are also asking whether the mission was state-sponsored or a private effort, the official added.
German investigators also reportedly believe that the saboteurs may have transported their equipment to Rostock via a delivery truck. Investigators do not appear to have found any concrete evidence linking the yacht and its crew to the bombings, however, and German officials have publicly warned against forming conclusions based on these reports.
What about a false flag operation?
U.S. and German officials have continued to emphasize that it remains possible the sabotage was disguised to look like it was perpetrated by someone else. Ukrainian officials have stressed this possibility — naming Russia as the likely sponsor — as well, but no evidence has been put forward to support this theory. If it was a false flag, it’s conceivable any government could have been behind it.
Why not Russia?
After the sabotage, Poland and the Ukraine immediately fingered Russia as the culprit, and both the U.S. and other NATO allies speculated as much themselves. U.S. and European intelligence agencies have reportedly been unable to find any conclusive evidence of Russia’s involvement, however. It also remains unclear what Russia would have had to gain from disabling their own pipeline, which they helped build and had already shut off.
Or maybe it was the United States all along?
President Biden warned, amid Russia’s buildup on the Ukrainian border in early February of last year, that “If Russia invades… again, then there will be longer Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” Some have interpreted that statement as a kind of advance admission of guilt, like American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who last month self-published a report on his Substack alleging the U.S. had conducted a covert strike on the pipelines. Hersh’s supposed bombshell, which was quickly endorsed by Kremlin officials and Russian state media, primarily relied on what appeared to be a single unnamed source who Hersh wrote had “direct knowledge of the operational planning” for the sabotage. The White House has rejected his post as “complete fiction,” and some members of the OSINT community have detailed numerous holes in Hersh’s assertions.
The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill has offered a more open-minded reading of the allegations, noting that Hersh may have screwed up the facts, but not the premise. Scahill also points out the U.S. has authorized, then lied about, numerous covert actions throughout its history, and that recent disclosures to the media about intelligence pointing toward Ukrainian partisans may be an example of “narrative washing.” At this point, however, there is no evidence linking the U.S. to the sabotage.
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