On Monday, the two Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia and Germany sustained “unprecedented” damage in what look like deliberate acts of sabotage. The pipeline operator, Nord Stream AG, has said “it is not possible to estimate a timeframe for restoring the gas transport infrastructure”. And it may take another week before the pipelines can be inspected.
The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is whodunnit? There are four prime suspects: Russia, the U.S., Poland and Ukraine. Let’s consider each one in turn.
Russia is arguably the least likely suspect, given that the two pipelines were its main source of leverage over Europe. Indeed, Russia had previously given Europe an ultimatum: drop the sanctions and we’ll turn the gas back on. Europe initially refused, but there was always the possibility this would change. Russia was hoping that the ongoing energy crisis would eventually force Europe to give in.
Yet Russia’s ultimatum is now dead in the water, if you’ll excuse the pun.
The Nord Stream pipelines were more valuable than Russia’s other pipelines into Europe, as they didn’t incur transit fees to other countries. And as many people have been asking, why would Russia sabotage them when it could just keep them switched off?
However, there are a couple of theories that do lay the blame on Russia.
Sabotaging the pipelines might have been a way for Russia to signal: “We have the capability to blow up undersea pipelines, so Norway better watch out.” But did anyone doubt that Russia has this capability? And if it was the Russians, wouldn’t they have given us some kind of hint, while maintaining plausible deniability? (Like when they claim such-and-such “fell out of a window”.)
Alternatively, it could have been a false flag attack, or a desperate attempt to drive up gas prices. But again, these theories seem unlikely for the simple reason that having leverage over Europe is much more useful to Russia.
Another obvious suspect is Uncle Sam. As I noted in a previous article for the Daily Sceptic, the U.S. has been trying to sabotage Nord Stream 2 for years (via sanctions and other threats, not demolition). And this may have been one major reason why they got involved in Ukraine in the first place.
There’s some circumstantial evidence that America was behind the sabotage.
At a press conference on February 7th, Biden stated, “If Russia invades … there will be no longer Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” He was then asked by a reporter how he could be so sure, given that the project is under Germany’s control. And he replied, “I promise you, we will be able to do that.”
And yesterday, a Polish MEP – who happens to be the husband of notorious Russia hawk Anne Applebaum – tweeted: “Thank you, USA” next to a picture of the gas leak. However, he subsequently backtracked, claiming that someone (tagging the Russian government) “did a special maintenance operation”.
There’s also evidence that the U.S. Navy was recently active in the area where the sabotage took place. Make of that what you will.
Now, readers will be aware that I’m generally sceptical of U.S. foreign policy. But if I had to put my money on it, I’d say this wasn’t the Americans. I could be wrong, of course. But it just doesn’t seem like their style.
Which brings me to suspect number three: Poland.
Like the U.S., Poland has long been opposed to Nord Stream 2 – though for slightly different reasons. Nord Stream 2 would circumvent the Yamal pipeline that runs through Poland, denying the Poles lucrative transit fees. And for understandable historical reasons, the Polish tend to be wary of Russo-German cooperation.
Since Russia’s invasion began, Poland has been one of the most hawkish countries in Europe, having given a higher percentage of its GDP in aid than everyone else besides Latvia and Estonia. It was also at the forefront of efforts to get EU sanctions on Russian energy. Meanwhile, Poland has been demanding war reparations from the Germans.
Just yesterday, the country completed its own pipeline from Norway (though this is may not have much impact on prices, as almost all Norwegian gas already goes to Europe). And back in August, the Polish president actually called for a “complete dismantling” of Nord Stream 2.
On the other hand, Poland is getting hit just as hard by the energy crisis as the rest of Europe. In August, the country recorded an inflation rate of 16.1% – above the European average, and even higher than Russia. This militates against the theory that Poland was behind the sabotage.
The fourth and final suspect is Ukraine.
The Ukrainians opposed Nord Stream 2 for exactly the same reason as the Poles: it would circumvent the pipelines running through their country, denying them billions in transit fees. And if the pipeline had come to fruition, Ukraine would have lost influence with the EU – since its own pipelines would be obsolete.
Of course, Ukraine had an even stronger motive to sabotage the pipelines: preventing Europe from giving in to Russia’s ultimatum. Now that both pipelines are unusable, Europe has much less incentive to drop the sanctions against Russia, or to stop providing arms to Ukraine.
There’s also the fact that Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s infrastructure. So why not retaliate against Russia’s infrastructure? According to people who know more about such things than me, blowing up the pipelines was well within Ukraine’s capabilities. (The country received underwater drones from the UK back in August.)
Another reason why Ukraine may be the culprit is as follows. The Nord Stream pipelines are jointly owned by Russia and Germany. So if the U.S. or Poland sabotaged them, it means the West has directly attacked Russia. And if Russia sabotaged them, it means Russia has directly attacked NATO. I’m not sure either side is bold enough for that.
Ukraine, by contrast, is already at war with Russia. So from their point of view, sabotaging the pipelines is much less risky.
I don’t know who attacked the pipelines, and nor does anyone else. But if I had to guess: I’d say there’s a 10% chance it was Russia, a 20% chance it was America, a 30% chance it was Poland, and a 40% chance it was Ukraine.
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If we are not a war with Russia and certainly not at war with any of their Tennis players I have to laugh at the absurdity of not putting the nationality of the Russian Players next to their name on the scoreboard at Wimbledon eg. ——-So you will see Alcaraz (ESP) versus Medvedev (__ ). ——-Medvedev is apparently from nowhere. But wouldn’t it actually be more civilised and less petty to put (RUS) next to his name to show ordinary Russians that we have no problem with them and we are not just a bunch of virtue signalling twits?
‘Does the Government have the power to punish Mr Phillips without trial?’ is, indeed, a very big point which affects us all.
The covid panic and the powers that the government improperly arrogated to itself was a great shock to many.
Newspapers are reporting on the activities of some servicemen having surveilled private individuals without authorisation.
There is an unsavoury arrogance and entitlement on display from questioners and certain of the questioned at the covid ‘inquiry’.
All of this is emblematic of Blair’s Britain groupthink, itself a product of a bloated, overmighty, overweening state/public sector:
‘…..social desirability bias becomes more prevalent in collectivist societies (Robertson and Fadil, 2009)
‘Social desirability bias occurs when respondents give answers to questions that they believe will make them look good to others, concealing their true opinions or experiences.’
Unfortunately this is set to get a great deal worse over the next few years.
Perhaps it needs to in order to create both a remedy and the popular will to implement it.
I doubt any remedy is possible while so many are willing to believe western establishment lies.
If they’re sanctioning reporters for being contrary to foreign policy then there are a lot of BBC reporters, etc. who require sanction for their Gaza coverage.
Any government which feels able to treat Julian Assange in the way that it has – and continues to do – may be assumed to be corrupt, prepared to ride roughshod over its own laws, and sinister to the point of evil.
I don’t expect them to change their ways in the near term so we will see more of this unlawful and almost hysterical behaviour in the weeks and months to come. How dare you disagree with the Climate Change religion/Covid Hysteria/Net Zero Bolleaux.
Is it really necessary in articles like this to preface everything with (words to the effect) “I don’t agree with x but …”? This sort of mealy mouthed virtue signalling is most evident when it comes to Tommy Robinson or Andrew Tate. These people are on our side and we must not throw them overboard in order to suck up to our enemies.
Andrew Tate is ”on our side”?? I think it’s safe to say you are most definitely not speaking for women there. But I guess if you have shared values with somebody who’s a rapist, sex-trafficking, narcissistic misogynist you’re well and truly outing yourself there aren’t you? Or is it because you too are the proud owner of a ‘PHD’, ( Pimping Hoes Degree )? It’s no surprise he converted to Islam is it? I mean, he ticks all of the boxes of a full-on Islamist doesn’t he? Plus the fact he’s anti-West. A <4min vid to illustrate what a vile PoS this scumbag is, though I was spoilt for choice tbh;
https://twitter.com/TheMilkBarTV/status/1710675972679508123
This article is a well-reasoned and factual take down of the professional lying grifter and exploiter of vulnerable women;
”The private chat logs of the War Room reveal much of what Andrew Tate actually believes. His modus operandi is more than just an elaborate money-making scheme: it is a worldview bordering on an ideology. The ‘PHD process’—referred to by participants as “the white path”—is that worldview in action. It is the process of taking a “low exposure female”—that is, a girl with a limited public profile—and slowly and methodically guiding her, through psychological manipulation, on a path toward sex work. Money is obviously one of the incentives; financial gain, however, according to many chat logs, does not appear to be the primary motivation. The domination and subjugation of women appears to be the real ‘high’ for many participants—Tate included.
Tate claims to be a ‘traditionalist’—but, ironically, his PHD process is a deliberate inversion of the traditional relationship structure in which a man works hard to provide for his partner and family, while a woman cares for and provides for the home and the children. The PHD process reverses this dynamic, with the woman earning money—through sex work—that is then given to her male partner in exchange for sex and attention. In Tate’s world, the woman is the breadwinner, the maintainer of the home, the creator of the family; meanwhile, the man lives lavishly off the largesse provided by ‘his’ woman who spends her time selling her body online. It is a potent psychological strategy that has proven very effective for Tate and his followers.”
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/essay/inside-andrew-tates-war-room/
Ok Mog, fair comment and I know he has a big mouth and that will put a lot of people off. If the accusations stand up in a proper trial with a jury and the evidence isn’t rigged against him, then I will not support him further. Secondly, whilst I say we are all on the same side, it is probably true to say that Andrew Tate is on no one’s side but his own. But for now, I see his detention without trial and the attacks on him from the BBC and the Guardian and all the other usual sources as a classic establishment take-down designed to shut him up and lock him away. Those who stand against the deep state need our support.
Tate is a pimp who’s also engaged in self/vanity marketing on the internet. That’s not exactly new and this so-called PHD is just how this ‘business model’ always operates. This also means that he’s an unsavoury character operating in a grey area of the law where the reason for Haven’t been to jail yet is usually Didn’t get caught so far. Routine cocaine user, obviously, but that’s not something special, either. He’s certainly undeserving of any support. OTOH, he also isn’t the evil incarnate he has sometimes been protrayed as.
Good to see the great PH finally make an appearance on DS. He was one of the few in the MSM that called covid from the start. Cue a load of downvotes/and comments about him getting vaxxed…
Anyway, it seems to me we (and the US) effectively are at war with Russia – it’s just a proxy war because for political and military reasons it suits us to keep it like that.
The war is being used for financial and economic supremacy. Politically the Ukraine problem could be seem as an excuse to try and upset BRICS a little, and reduce their influence in the world trading’s. The USA is starting to tighten up the international use of the dollar (also the Euro) to put extra pressure on the Russian economy, at a time when the Russians and Indians are in conflict over how to pay for oil exports. Indian does not want to use the Yuan and although members of BRICS, India and China are not hand in glove and are in conflict themselves in certain areas of interest. Commerce will always find a way to operate, governments will always try to control it, but it is the public that have to deal with the consequences.
‘We’ … ‘us’ … ? Count me out of this proxy war please.
Me too!
One can argue whether we are at war with Russia or not. The fact is the UK is supplying weapons and military material to Ukraine and telling the Ukrainians to use it all against Russia. And, as documented in the 350-page ‘Ukraine’s Crimes against Humanity’, available on the internet and written by M. Grigoriev, President of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy, and listing more than 400 testimonies of victims and eyewitnesses of Ukrainian war crimes and terrorist acts against civilians committed between 2022 and 2023, these weapons are being used by the Ukrainian military not only against the Russian military but also against the Ukrainian civilians living in eastern Ukraine, many of whom are ethnic Russians.
Ah, you say, but the Foundation for the Study of Democracy is based in Moscow so it is Russian propaganda. Fine, but then show me an equivalent Ukrainian document, detailing an equal number of written testimonies of supposed Russian crimes.
Indeed, as reported by bloggers such as Graham Phillips, Patrick Lancaster, Mike Jones, Eva Bartlett, Alina Lipp … the Ukrainian military has been shelling schools, hospitals, shopping centres and residential districts in eastern Ukraine since the ‘Maidan coup’ in 2014. Why? To ‘cleanse’ the country of ethnic Russians. Patrick Lancaster has seemingly hundreds of videos on YouTube, where he speaks to the civilian victims of such actions – check them out.
These bloggers are the ones providing independent, non-government funded reports directly from the ‘front line’. It is not that long ago that one could rely on mainstream media for independent reporting; nowadays they have all become government propaganda agencies.
Indeed, as reported by bloggers such as Graham Phillips, Patrick Lancaster, Mike Jones, Eva Bartlett, Alina Lipp … the Ukrainian military has been shelling schools, hospitals, shopping centres and residential districts in eastern Ukraine since the ‘Maidan coup’ in 2014. Why?
Because pro-Russian separatists declared these two provinces independent republics which started a civil war in eastern Ukraine. As is the usual case with this kind of warfare, anything that’s within the zone the artillery can reach will be progressively reduced to rubble. On both sides, obviously, although ‘bloggers’ will only report what’s happening on their side.
To ‘cleanse’ the country of ethnic Russians.
Ah, yes, good ol’ genocide again. Everybody seems to have one these days, no matter how far-fetched. It’s positively impossible to accomplish ethnic cleansing of anything by fairly low-volume, static trench warfare which is what was happening in this area before the Russian invasion which ended (so far) with the annexation of somewhat more Ukrainian territory by Russia.
The Ukrainian Government in Minsk 2 agreed to allow the two oblasts to become self-governing entities but still within Ukraine. It was only after it became clear that |Ukraine had no intention of honouring its agreement that, understandably, that the separatist start to take action.
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I would like to know the sources from which HMG obtains its view that Ukraine is a beacon of democracy.
Let us remind ourselves that Britain’s Prime Minister Johnson was the one that refused to give security guarantees to Ukraine when they were offered (and wanted to accept) a pretty benign peace deal in Istanbul that would have seen Russia’s withdrawal from the entirety of Ukraine except Crimea. So much for Ukrainian self-determination.
This intervention has been widely reported in the West (except of course in official circles) and only last week featured in a TV interview with Ukraine’s chief negotiator at the talks.
Ukraine has been a tool of the West and nothing the West does is in the interest of Ukraine’s people. It was done to weaken Russia but has ironically made them much more of a military and commercial threat whilst at the same time weakening the West military might and draining Europe’s bank accounts.
Very pleasing to see an article by Peter Hitchens here in DS.
Well done DS. Thank you Peter Hitchens.
Actually I agree entirely with the case Peter Hitchens makes.
The most worrying aspect of this case, notwithstanding judgement pending, is the degree of treachery being employed by this rogue government aided and abetted by a corrupt judiciary.
We have a monarch who is supposed to protect us from rogue government . . .
The bloody Windsors are actually fully embedded within club Davos Deviants.
Traitors actually.
I have been following Graham William Phillips for years as he gives a very accurate account of events in Ukraine.
He was at the Maidan riots showing the violence of the pro-EU neo-Nazis in the US led coup.
He was reporting the struggles of the DPR and LPR volunteers against the ultra nationalist Ukrainian army in The Donbass.
He was in Mariupol during and after it’s liberation videoing the residents celebrating the Russians arrival.
He taught himself how to speak Russian and makes many humanitarian deliveries to the people of the Donbass in his beat up old Rover car.
His treatment by the UK government is an absolute travesty.
He is deeply patriotic towards England but he is against the UK being a vassal state of the US.
He has seen the persecution of the ethnic Russians in the Donbass by the Ukrainians in this US proxy war against Russia and, like me, he believes the Russian action was justified.
This is no reason for the UK government to deny him his rights without a trial.
He has had to take the UK government to court to defend his own rights.
An excellent article from Laura Perrins at TCW taking apart the immigration scandal and rightly making great play of Bozo’s culpability.
Apparently – according to Bozo over one million immigrants in two years is a Brexit success.
There is only one word for that stain on the planet but it is hidden within
C you Nxt Tuesday.
Is it lawful (i.e. in accord with Common Law) for our servants, the government, to “sanction” (whatever that means) us?
As Peter Hitchens (who is almost always right, except when it comes to needles) says…. this is the top of a very big and very slippery slope indeed, and a lot is riding on this case. Looking more widely, the case of Julian Assange brings shame on this country, and it would be nice not to add to this affront to justice. I hope the DS, despite its pro-Ukraine leanings, will continue to have a principled approach.
If this Russo-Ukraine war is eventually concluded by peace talks, it will be revealing to see if the British state concludes a peace deal with Mr Phillips.
The main point is the government over stepping its powers, and making a mockery of free speech, its time the whole system was overhauled.
Whilst Peter Hitchens is to geopolitics what Taylor Swift is to archaeology, he is correct that working as a propaganda mouthpiece for a foreign government UK is not currently at war with is not an offense per se. The vile Graham Phillips should be abominated but not legally sanctioned.