An international whodunit conquered the front pages this week as both the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which carry natural gas from Russia to Germany, appear to have been sabotaged and are now leaking into the Baltic Sea. The destruction of the pipelines not only represents an environmental and economic disaster for Europe, but more alarmingly a potential escalation in the already dangerous proxy war between the United States and Russia.
(Note: Since these newsletters are long, Substack has indicated they may get cut off a bit when receiving them by email. If that happens, you can always access the full newsletter directly on Substack.)
In addition to Twitter, you can also follow us on Truth Social, Gettr, and Gab.
Table Of Contents
Sabotage On The Baltic
This story is still developing, but here is a brief breakdown of the situation as it stands this week.
Earlier this week, leaks were detected in both of the Nord Stream pipelines located in the Baltic Sea near Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Germany. Even though neither of the pipelines was shipping gas to Europe, both of the pipelines were pressurized and thus began leaking an enormous amount of gas into the Baltic Sea.
The extent of the leaks is still unclear but rough estimates by scientists, based on the volume of gas reportedly in one of the pipelines, vary between 100,000 and 350,000 tonnes of methane.
Nord Stream 2, which was intended to increase the flow of gas from Russia to Germany, reportedly contained 300m cubic metres of gas when Berlin halted the certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine.
That volume alone would translate to 200,000 tonnes of methane, Cooper said. If it all escaped, it would exceed the 100,000 tonnes of methane vented by the Aliso Canyon blowout, the biggest gas leak in US history, which happened in California in 2015. Aliso had the warming equivalent of half a million cars.
Here are some images and footage of the damage.
Location Of The Leaks
But nobody believes these leaks were caused by nature. The EU, NATO, Russia Poland, Sweden, Germany and Denmark all have stated that they believe these leaks were caused by sabotage.
Both Sweden and Denmark delivered a joint report to the UN stating that they believe that these leaks were caused deliberately by the use of explosives.
Denmark and Sweden have said leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”.
German authorities have also said they believe that highly explosive detonations were responsible for the sabotage attacks on the two pipelines. The EU, Nato and the governments of Poland, Sweden and Denmark have all said they believe the leaks were caused deliberately.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also believes the pipelines were sabotaged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday blamed the United States and its allies for blowing up the undersea Nord Stream pipelines, raising the temperature in a crisis that has left Europe racing to secure its energy infrastructure and supplies.
"The sanctions were not enough for the Anglo-Saxons: they moved onto sabotage," Putin said. "It is hard to believe but it is a fact that they organised the blasts on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines."
"They began to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure," Putin said. "It is clear to everyone who benefits from this. Of course, he who benefits did it."
The Polish Prime Minister had this to say.
“Among those pointing to the war in Ukraine was the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, who was speaking at the opening of a new gas pipeline between Norway and Poland. ‘Today we faced an act of sabotage. We don’t know all the details of what happened but we see clearly that it’s an act of sabotage, related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine,’”
Not only are the pipelines built very strong, but Swedish seismologists detected explosions near the leaks.
The pipelines are built of steel coated with concrete so that they can withstand underwater pressures. In other words, it takes a lot of force to damage them.
“A gas leak of this nature is extremely rare,” Mr. Böttzauw said. “It is unlikely that three gas leaks would occur in one accident within 24 hours.”
Swedish seismologists on Monday detected two separate underwater explosions near where the leaks were later identified.
As to how this was accomplished, there are several theories.
It remains a mystery as to how the explosives reached the pipeline. According to initial reports, the explosions happened at depths of between 70 and 90 metres.
There has been speculation that mini submarines might have been used to deliver the explosives. However, the amount of explosives that would have been necessary to cause such large blasts make this theory increasingly unlikely.
Instead, experts are suggesting that maintenance robots operating within the pipeline structure may have planted the bombs during repair works
How it was done is an interesting question. Who did it and why is a more interesting and potentially dangerous question. The two suspects being accused the most are the United States and the creators of the pipeline themselves, Russia.
Tucker Carlson did a monologue on the destruction of the pipelines this week and analyzed the question of who may be responsible.
Our Thread On The Monologue
Full Monologue
It is true that blowing up Nord Stream does not help Vladimir Putin. He would not do that. Why would he? But that doesn't mean that other countries wouldn't consider doing it. They would consider it and we know they have considered it because at least one of them has said so in public. In early February, less than three weeks before the war in Ukraine began, Joe Biden suggested on camera that he might take out these pipelines.
Biden Clip
This is the president who has declared climate change the most pressing emergency in the history of the world. This is the man who lectures you about using a woodstove or driving an SUV because of its emissions. This is the guy who spent billions trying to mitigate cow flatulence because methane. Would that guy really blow up a methane pipeline in the middle of the Baltic Sea? It was hard to imagine.
That would be an unimaginably reckless act. That would be the kind of thing you would do if you wanted to start a nuclear war. It would be insane and yet in retrospect, it's obvious they were thinking about this because Joe Biden wasn't the only person to suggest it. Victoria Nuland at the State Department said pretty much the very same thing. Nuland is a lifelong war cheerleader. She worked to bring about the Iraq invasion, never apologized, kept going. She helped engineer the coup that overthrew the Ukrainian government some years back. So capable, clearly she's capable of anything... but environmental terrorism? Even for Victoria Nuland, that seemed too much too extreme, and yet here she is in January.
Nuland Clip
The first picture from Cernovich’s tweet is from Neo Con Anne Applebaum’s husband, Polish Politician Radosław Sikorski, who eventually deleted it.
Tucker concluded his monologue by discussing the potentially devastating effects if the United States was truly behind this.
Every action has a reaction, equal and opposite. Blow up the Nord Stream pipelines? Okay, we've entered a new phase, one in which the United States is directly at war with the largest nuclear power in the world. It doesn't mean we'll go nuclear immediately, but it does suggest there could be consequences. If we actually blow up the Nord Stream pipelines, why wouldn't Russia sever undersea internet cables?
What would happen if they did that? What would happen if banks in London couldn't communicate with banks in New York? Just that one piece of it, leaving aside its potential effects on our power grid, but let's just say the banks couldn't communicate with each other for one day. What would the economic effect of that be? We would cascade downward into your house. We can have an actual collapse. We could wind up very quickly in third world conditions. Those are the stakes. Have the people behind this, the geniuses like Victoria Nuland, considered the effects? Maybe they have. Maybe that was the point.
Tulsi Gabbard’s Segment With Tucker Carlson After His Monologue
"We are unfortunately being led by leaders who are selfish and shortsighted and don't care about the American people. They are leading us further and further into war."
Revolver News put out an excellent piece discussing who may have been behind the sabotage and the potentially dangerous effects of this.
There are several lessons to draw from this development. First, European sovereignty is even faker than it looked a few days ago. When it comes to the most important questions of trade, development, and war and peace, the Globalist American Empire calls the tune, and NATO “allies” dance to it.
But the more important message, in fact a critical one, is this: the Globalist American Empire is playing for all the marbles against Russia, and is ready to do whatever is necessary to elongate and escalate the war. And that puts the entire world at tremendous risk.
Meanwhile, Russian puppet administrations in the Donbass and Kherson announced and then held referendums on joining Russia. Were these referendums legitimate? Of course not. But the fig leaf of legitimate annexation gives Russia the pretext to defend the territories it has captured with an overwhelming amount of force, possibly including tactical nuclear weapons.
Vladimir Putin invoked that nuclear threat in a speech to the Russian public last week:
Washington, London and Brussels are openly encouraging Kiev to move the hostilities to our territory. They openly say that Russia must be defeated on the battlefield by any means, and subsequently deprived of political, economic, cultural and any other sovereignty and ransacked.
They have even resorted to the nuclear blackmail. I am referring … to the statements made by some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO countries on the possibility and admissibility of using weapons of mass destruction – nuclear weapons – against Russia.
I would like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff.
The timing of all of this is pretty wild as protests have broken out in Germany due to rising energy and gas prices in recent days.
Could it have been Russia? That’s what nearly everyone in the Mainstream Media and DC Swamp would have you believe. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? We wouldn’t put money on it. But in case you’re curious about some of their arguments, here’s a piece in Fox News laying out a few of them.
The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines undoubtedly raises the already high temperature between the United States and Russia. The proxy war in Ukraine rages on and shows no signs of ending any time soon. Billions of dollars of foreign aid and military equipment are being pumped into the country by America and its NATO allies almost every week. The fighting has not stopped, Putin has moved to formally annex four Ukrainian territories, Ukraine is applying for NATO membership and the United States is applying more sanctions on Russia. For a few months it seemed like many in America had forgotten about this conflict. Ukrainian flags, pins and masks had been growing more rare to see in DC, a casualty of the Lib’s most recent “current thing,” and the only reminder of the conflict seemed to be notifications on people’s phones buzzing with news that the America Last Swamp had agreed to another stupid foreign aid package. This war is unfortunately not close to being over.
Does it seem pretty obvious who was behind the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines? Yes, and it gives us no pleasure suspecting our own government of potentially being responsible for an action so outrageously reckless with incredibly dangerous consequences for our country and the world. Will we ever get definitive proof? Maybe. If we do, it will just be targeted for censorship and made illegal to discuss like questions about almost everything that goes against the Regime’s narrative.
To quote Rust Cohle, “this is a world where nothing is solved.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Columbia Bugle to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.