After months of investigations into the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that connect Russia to Germany, no evidence has been found linking Russia to the attack, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing interviews with 23 diplomats and intelligence officials from nine different countries.
“There is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage,” one European official said. Some Western officials were quick to blame Russia for the September attacks, but the report said some officials now say Russia is not to blame.
Russia has little motive to attack the Nord Stream pipelines, which are mainly owned by the Russian state gas company Gazprom. Nord Stream 2 never delivered gas to Germany, and Nord Stream 1 stopped making shipments a few weeks before the blasts. But Russia would have an interest in keeping the pipelines intact to maintain some leverage over Europe as it faces an energy crisis.
The Post report recognized that Russia had little motive for the sabotage. “The rationale that it was Russia [that attacked the pipelines] never made sense to me,” one European official said. A handful of officials said they regretted how quickly many in the West were to put the blame on Moscow.
Investigators believe the perpetrators were state actors, and a German official said it appears explosives were placed on the outside of the pipelines. One state actor that had a motive for the attacks is the US, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the explosions a “tremendous opportunity” to wean Europe off Russian gas.
The US had long tried to stop the construction of Nord Stream 2 through sanctions, and President Biden said back in January that the US would “bring an end” to the pipeline if Russia invaded. Radek Sikorski, a former Polish foreign minister and current Member of European Parliament, suggested Washington was responsible by thanking the US on Twitter for the incident shortly after the leaks were reported.
But at this point, there’s still no evidence that the US or its allies were behind the blasts, and its unlikely conclusive proof of who was responsible will be made public anytime soon. “Forensics on an investigation like this are going to be exceedingly difficult,” a senior US State Department official told the Post.
For their part, Russia has blamed the blasts on the UK, an allegation that London denies. “Our intelligence services have data indicating that British military specialists were directing and coordinating the attack,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in November.
The explosions and leaks took place in the Baltic Sea in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark, which are both investigating the incidents. Given the relatively shallow depth of the blasts, the report said potential perpetrators aren’t limited only to countries that possess manned submarines or deep-sea demolition capabilities.
Why would you even question this at all is baffling to me, we have known soon after the event that The Empire did it. Russia had zero motive to do I and they have an alternative pipe that they won’t use to supply “Unfriendly Countries”.
Let us see — why bother with who ia. NOT to be blamed, instead of who IS to be blamed? Stupid just got a brand new meaning!
It is too obvious who was behind this attack, so they are trying to shift the attention to Russia.
Stupid is as stupid does… thanks to Forest Gump’s mom 😉
USA UKR the Poles? seem like the most likely candidates.
Plenty of evidences UK and USA were behind this attack.
well they do have the motive
After months of investigations into the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that connect Russia to Germany, western officials doubt Moscow was responsible for bombing its own pipelines
hilarious. imagine the western investigator = “oh trust me, we will get to the bottom of this if it is the last thing that we do!”
Well, DUH.
Oh really? As if anyone didn’t already know that.
Still screwing around with that hypothesis? It is known that about the same time Boris was commissioned to put an end to negotiations between Z and Russia, UK was implicated in planning the deed.
That is the entire issue with the mainstream media. They don’t even account for common sense when they parrot propaganda.
Intelligence officials… Now there’s an oxymoron. For one thing they should be referred to as oxymorons.
So,… a bunch of oxymorons got together and decided that the Nation least likely to have carried out this act probably didn’t carry it out…
Got it.
“‘The rationale that it was Russia [that attacked the pipelines] never made sense to me,’ one European official said.”…
…’But come out and say that? Who wants to get on Ukraine’s disinformation blacklist, or get their car blown up with their daughter in it?’ continued the official, who agreed to speak only under conditions of anonymity.
Exactly … and the official would get blamed by the so very caring western liberals for his own daughter getting blown up too, of course … after all, opinions are the same thing as murder, right?
My first reaction to this bye-line was “Well, duh”.
Ditto.
“A handful of officials said they regretted how quickly many in the West were to put the blame on Moscow.”
Yes, but of course it’s understandable, right, to think the official enemy, from whose unhuman (per Zel-man yesterday) hands anything may be expected? After all, it’s not like there’s a long and sordid history of false propaganda against the official enemy du jour to justify literally anything up to and including nuclear bombardment, is there?
We always “regret” afterwards and we always meant well.
Well, I hope it’s obvious now that Russia didn’t bomb its OWN pipeline….Who COULD’VE done it I wonder? HMMMMM….