from Giuseppe Sarcina, Washington correspondent
It wasn’t an accident. Russia investigates for terrorism and points the finger at the US. The reply: Ridiculous
They all agree on one thing: Sabotage. It was not an accident, but a deliberate action that blew up the pipes of Nord Stream 1 and 2 in three places deep in the Baltic Sea, off the coasts of Denmark and Sweden. According to initial findings, the damage could be irreparable.
Several politicians in Poland and Ukraine suspect it is a Russian attack. Although officially the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, specifies: We do not know the details, but we can clearly see an act of sabotage. From Moscow, the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov replies that these are stupid and absurd accusations and reverses suspicions about Washington and Kiev. All the others, for the moment, are cautious, waiting to collect concrete elements. The Danish premier, Mette Frederiksen said: it is really difficult to imagine that everything happened to us by chance. Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security issued a note: an unacceptable act and which concerns all Europeans. The EU will have to respond in a united way. A concept then reiterated by the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Europe calls for an international inquiry. The Russians say they are willing to cooperate and in the meantime they announce that they are having opened an investigation for terrorism. The Swedish and Finnish judicial authorities have also launched parallel investigations. The service of the Swedish seismologists has identified the trace of powerful underwater explosions, near the leaks in the pipeline that directly connects Russia to Germany. The Finnish Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto, announced that the judiciary is scrutinizing all the movements of ships in the Baltic Sea, trying to identify any passages near the conduit.
Even the White House is cautious. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks of blatant sabotage. In Washington and elsewhere he surprised the tweet of Radoslaw Sikorski, European parliamentarian and former Polish foreign minister, as well as husband of Anne Applebaum, a great expert on Russia. Sikorski posted una photo of the bubbling sea with the inscription: Thanks Use. A reconstruction relaunched with the aim of discrediting the Democratic Administration, by the journalist of the conservative Fox News, Tucker Carlson. Carlson aired a clip from February 7, 2022, in which Biden warned Putin: If it invades Russia, Nord Stream 2 will cease to exist. It may be a coincidence, but the same video is being relaunched in these hours by Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry. Dry White House Reply: Ridiculous Accusations. In any case, tomorrow we will talk about it at the Security Council.
The Nord Stream 2, however, never went into operation and on February 22, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered to stop the work that was almost completed. On 2 September, however, Gazprom had cut off the flow of gas in Nord Stream 1. It should be remembered that the consortium controlled with 51% by the Russian group; the rest is owned by two German companies, Wintershall Dea AG and E.On, a Dutch company, Nederlandse Gasunie and finally a French company, Engie. According to the German weekly Der Spiegel, the CIA had warned several European countries, including Germany, about possible attacks on Nord Stream. Information, however, considered too vague to be able to activate effective countermeasures on a route 1,222 kilometers long.
Nord Stream, investigations and accusations on sabotage: “Perhaps irreparable damage” – Corriere.it
