The big news out of Europe this morning, overshadowing even the bellyaching by the Eurotrash commentariat about the election of Giorgia Meloni as prime minister of Italy is the sudden disruption of the Nord Stream pipelines bringing Russian gas to Europe.
The authorities in Germany, Denmark and Sweden are investigating suspicious leaks in two gas pipelines running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, after both experienced a sudden drop in pressure that raised concerns among European leaders on Tuesday about possible sabotage.
Neither of the pipelines, Nord Stream 1 and 2, had been active, but both were filled with natural gas when they experienced a sharp drop in pressure that was first registered on Monday.
Here is video of the leak.
If you’re wondering about scale, it is nearly a half-mile in diameter.
Credit: TankerTrackers.com on Twitter
The above map is by the author based on background imagery from MarineTraffic.com. To place the map in context, use this link.
It isn’t merely one Nord Stream pipeline that has sprung a leak. Both have. And the leaks are not colocated; they are about 75km apart, which means the same thing did not damage both. And Nord Stream 1 has sprung two leaks. And there is more. Read the whole thread.
As the “Moscow Rules” saying goes, “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
No matter where you stand on the issue of Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine, you can find someone who benefits. The Russians have the opportunity to make a large swathe of Europe feel pain this winter before European governments bring alternative gas sources online. Others are circulating this statement by Joey SoftServe to claim that the CIA was behind the incident.
I haven’t seen anyone yet claim that Kiev was responsible, but I guess that is inevitable.
My intuition is that Russia is the culprit because I don’t believe our CIA is competent to carry out this operation and because the environmental impact would cause people in the National Security Council and the intelligence community to leak the plan to stop the mission. If the Russians did demolish their own pipeline, it shows a certain resignation on the part of the Kremlin that the blackmail game is over and that the status quo ante that of Europe dependent upon Russian gas will not return when Putin’s War winds down.