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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Those up to no good always want their faces covered
And those who think they will spread the virus without a mask should really think, and stay at home.
It’s a shame that England won’t in practice be much different – at least on public transport I’m expecting all the operating companies to mandate masks, led by TFL. Otherwise England could be the control group for the study of the efficacy of mask mandates. Pick a few towns and regions in the two countries with similar climate, geography, demographics, vaccination rates and current “case” rates and then see which one fares better over time.
From the people Ice spoken to, they all want masks on tubes and buses to continue and say they will use them regardless. They’re scared shitless of this thing
Not shitless. They are full of the stuff.
‘Witless’ is the word.
Muzzle will be part of the T&C of carriage. That’s contract law and British Transport Police have no remit in contract law. No statute and they have no power.
And what of cross-border public transport? Will you have to muzzle up/free-face as you cross the border?
I live in Hereford; the train to Shrewsbury is run by Arriva Trains Wales. Will I have to be muzzled to make a journey that is entirely in England?
They cannot make face nappies part of the conditions of carriage. Firstly, because the conditions of carriage are national, not a Welsh Assembly responsibility. Secondly, it would have to include an exemption clause, which renders it pointless. You only have to look at the situation with airlines and support animals to see that.
You say “cannot” as though that has any meaning to these lunatic despots.
The question is not who will allow them, it is who will stop them.
It’s who will and does defy the
Me, for one.
Who can stop them, not who will. The government has a monopoly of violence and no tyranny in history has lacked thugs willing to do its dirty work. There are dark days ahead.
It’s quite likely the National conditions of carriage will mandate masks
TFL will lead the way and others will follow
It will also include an exemption clause which will make it pointless, just as it did in the so called ‘mask mandate’
This is to protect the train operator from the public rather than to protect the public from ‘the virus’.
I think this is the most likely scenario
The logical answer it to declare oneself as ‘exempt’; they have no right to inquire as to why, and they never have done.
Which is exactly what makes a mockery of the whole mask mandate, as it can’t be enforced, and nor should it. TFL etc. should also take note of the latest landmark Danish study on masks that concluded no benefit.
That’s already been done in the States. Masks mandates make no difference. They don’t work for reasons explained by Fauci.
Yet I know intelligent, frightened people who think they do.
It’s already occurred with North Dakota and South Dakota – no difference in the proportion of cases!
Indeed
The US doesn’t exist according to our media
Covid is a total scam, masks can only have a down side.
This is no longer about public health – this is about power and a reluctance to relinquish that power..
Remove the words “no longer” for full accuracy.
Level 0 = masks
New Normal.
Level -1 = no masks
Abnormal.
That so many people are happily obedient enough to stretch bacteria-ridden snot rags over their faces in public will be the everlasting legacy of these times.
I’ve heard that some mask wearers have been hospitalised due to mask fibres being found in their lungs.
The whole point of everything now is to abolish, or render meaningless by diluting, or making statistically insignificant every imaginable control group, so that they can continue to implement and justify every absurdity already tried out, or still to be dreamed up in the future.
Build Back Better
But they’ve failed in the Stares. Stay strong.
I live in Hereford; I using some Prof Fergusson-type modelling; I predict an increase of Welsh people shopping in Bristol, Gloucester, Ross, Hereford, Shrewsbury, Chester.
Local car-boot sales have been full of traders from South Wales since English boots opened and Welsh ones remain shut.
You presuppose that most English traders won’t continue to mandate muzzles anyway. I fully expect all large retailers to do so, if they know what’s good for them.
Oi, stop kicking. “if they know what’s good for them” refers to the calls that they’ll receive from their masters: it’s not my position.
Sainsbury’s have already said it will be personal choice. Asda have said they’ll want folk to wear them. I’ve been using Asda Hereford for 10 years; on 19 Jul, I will go in and if I am told I need to wear a face nappy, I’ll ask to see the duty manager and they’ll be politely informed that my trade will be going to Sainsbury’s until their attitude changes.
Drakeford and his rapist son should wear masks of shame forever.
“…to help keep us all safe.” Glad to see they’re following The Science…wait a minute…
“Safe” is literally my most hated word right now. Every time I hear or read “stay safe!” a bit of me dies. I decide if I want to be safe, no one else decides for me! But we all know that SAFE = CONTROL.
I get the urge to physically attack people who tell me to stay safe.
Hear, hear. ‘Safe’ has become an obscenity.
I detest that phrase – “keeping everyone safe” – and its variants so much that I have actually had a bit of a rant at colleagues who have used it. I have asked them to explain how these measures are keeping people at risk of suicide or self-harm “safe”. How they are keeping victims of domestic violence who are cooped up with their abusers “safe”. How they are keeping the chronically lonely “safe”. How they are keeping kids and students whose educations are being blighted “safe”.
No answers are forthcoming, of course.
More proof if any were needed that this is a cult
Two cults and two leaders who each believe they are the one true god
The adherents have zany theories about the magical life giving properties of a cheap piece of paper imported from China
Based on exactly the same ‘data’ and science’ (produced by the high priests) the argument goes that if you behave in exactly the same way in two different locations the outcomes will not be the same.
if one follows that thinking to its logical conclusion then changing location will save your life
As an aside there has been speculation over the year as to who built Offa’s Dyke and why. Perhaps they were visionaries. Did they know that one day we would need to be able to define which side of a line maskless death would occur
Makes no fucking difference.
Those who don’t wear them now will continue to ignore the legislation (like me). Meanwhile, the longer this is perpetuated, the more angry people get as it becomes common knowledge that this whole thing is a pre-planned and pre-meditated collusion between the pharmacutical companies and the World Health Organisation, using a US created bio-weapon.
………that this whole thing is a pre-planned and pre-meditated collusion between the pharmacutical companies and the World Health Organisation, using a US created bio-weapon.
And as Doc David Martin has told Reiner Fuellmich, he has evidence relating to 73 US patents which clearly show that there was nothing novel about the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus.
The coronavirus “pandemic” has been planned for decades and while in itself it is largely hype, its real purpose is to scare or coerce the great bulk of the global population into allowing themselves to be injected with the likely purposely lethal Covid vaccines.
I can’t find the words to describe just how much I loathe that man. Living in Wales and having only recently plucked up the courage to ditch the lanyard in shops, I can now expect to get hassled every time I go shopping, Welsh shopkeepers and assistants assuming that the unmasked are English and need reminding of the Welsh rules. The anxiety Drakeford refers to is his own, but I think ultimately the decision to keep the masks is a political one, to further drive home the idea that Wales is independent of uk government control, and the UK is a defunct concept. These power-crazed morons are playing god.
I ditched the lanyard two months ago. You have nothing to fear at all. Shopkeepers are all too happy to see customers, they don’t care. I am now declining to register too, since I see providing a false name and phone number (which they are undoubtedly aware happens a large majority of the time), is an exercise in futility.
Believe me, I’ve been enjoying every minute of being lanyard-free. Never stopped, never questioned. But I expect that to change, when the English and Welsh “rules” on mask-wearing in shops part company. I’m expecting the Welsh to stop assuming that all unmasked are “exempt”, instead suspecting they’re English and ignorant of the local rules.
Have never given my details for track and trace. And I feel more determined than ever to resist engaging with this shitshow.
This is Cold War thinking, replace the bogeyman Soviet bloc with a bogeyman virus. Replace the subject of the 2 minute hate (can’t remember the name offhand) in 1984 with SARS-CoV-2 as the enemy of the state.
Emmanuel Goldstein, the figure behind every plot against the State (who almost certainly didn’t exist).
Thank you for reminding me, it’s a while since I read the book.
Very soon the subject of the 2 minute hate will be those of us who harbour crazy, subversive thoughts, such as that our own immune system are perfectly adequate for the vast majority of people, and that wearing a loose, damp, bacteria laden muzzle can only have deleterious health effects.
Don’t you simply loathe the phantom mouth that appears when these goons try to speak from under their nappies?
Cameltoe
Dungford has certainly not gone away.
May it please his controllers, the powers of Hell, to remedy that forthwith, immediately, and without delay.
Garden forks and rope available at B&Q!
This is going to work really well on trains, isn’t it? The Transport for Wales train opeerator (controlled by the Welsh government) operates most of the services in adjacent parts of England, including the Marches line which goes down the border and is the main operator at several sizeable English places (Shrewsbury, Hereford). And it weaves in and out of Wales. So what’s the law? People have to check on a map whether they have to wear a mask or not at that particular point?
Of course, it’s highly likely that the train operator will try to insist on masks as a condition of using their services, even well outside Wales (they go as far as Manchester). Let’s hope that the English train operators don’t try the same trick – I’m not hopeful, though.
I live in Hereford and posted about this earlier. Point is, if muzzles are a T&C of carriage, then that’s contract law and no police force in the country has the power to enforce contract law. There may well be a Statutory Instrument for muzzles in Wales, but BTP can only enforce it while the transport device (there’s plenty of x-border buses too) is in Wales.
There’s a precedent: IIRC smoking was banned in indoor public places (including trains) in Scotland about a year or two before England. The train companies which ran services across the border and which still had smoking carriages (I think there was only one company) banned smoking on the whole service, despite it being legal, as the alternative would have been everyone having to stub out their fags when the train crossed into Scotland.
If Cymruzombies are worried and anxious about going out, they can bloody well stay in.
I saw a good few out and about today, outdoors, including one man on a bicycle! I can only put it down to mask-induced oxygen deprivation having caused brain damage.
Asda in Caldicot empty those inside muzzled.Where are all the shoppers weird.Are they cowering indoors or fuming with rage like me?
That’s my September holiday in Wales cancelled, it looks like England again.
It really isn’t that bad
Don’t do the BBC. Masks don’t work and in any event Sars-Cov-2 is simply a massive scam. See David Martin giving evidence to Reiner Fuellmich. https://www.bitchute.com/video/anNY7jqPAiiD/
https://planetlockdownfilm.com/full-interviews/
“In this interview with Sucharit Bhakdi he disc[r]ibes a study just released regarding children and masks stating that they are intolerable and unhealthy.” And more regarding vaxx and clotting.
Won’t the mask be their undoing? First, policy on mask use flip-flopped at the start; second, aren’t there now studies confirming not only uselessness but harm (Bhakdi above et al.). Their stance looks increasingly like purposed deceptiveness.
Spineless bed wetter’s…get a life.
In Wales we have the worst waiting lists , poor health outcomes compared with England. Drakeford is a pleasant man who is in search of a good tailor and a scientific background!
Drakeford would prefer to have his hand over our mouths
just like his son
It’s the Welsh govt that are the danger to people, not the virus.