Nord Stream and the war in Ukraine

In September 2022, three of the four pipelines connecting Germany and Russia were blown up. At the time this was blamed on Russia, which had invaded Ukraine a few months earlier. A different picture is emerging.

The pipelines, Nord Stream 1 and 2, supplied gas to Germany. Germany was the largest customer of Russian energy company Gazprom. The pipeline was the brainchild of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, who later went to sit on the boards of several Russian energy companies.

Mystery

Blaming Russia for this terrorist act was the default story from politicians and the media in NATO countries. Mostly that boiled down to “it’s the kind of thing Russians do”; although why they would do it to their own pipeline was always a mystery.

But now the truth is slowly leaking out, like gas from a fractured pipeline. The “suspicious movements” of Russian naval vessels so beloved of NATO’s Baltic member states as an explanation for how the damage was inflicted is finally being replaced by facts.

Arrest

In August this year, in a small village near Rimini in Italy, a man was arrested for the crime following the issuing of an EU-wide arrest warrant. Was the man Russian, as would be expected if the West’s propaganda was accurate?

He was not: he was Ukrainian. He was among a group who sailed from Rostock in Germany and, it is alleged, planted the explosives in a terrorist raid. It was the first arrest, but is unlikely to be the last.

Tip off

Apparently Dutch intelligence services had tipped off their US counterparts that something of this kind was afoot. And the US in turn advised the Ukrainian regime against launching this terrorist attack. That advice seems to have been ignored.

Russia regularly accuses Ukraine of terrorism, citing it as a reason for its military action in February 2022. The arrest and background to the pipeline sabotage appears to confirm suspicions that the Zelensky regime, whilst supported by NATO, is dangerously rogue, capable of planning and carrying out acts indistinguishable from acts of war.

Uncomfortable

In reporting these developments, the Financial Times said evidence that Ukrainians appear to be behind the bombing leads to an “uncomfortable conclusion”. As the story of NATO involvement in that war is told, there will no doubt be other uncomfortable conclusions.

Yet the Labour government has pledged eternal support for Ukraine and has been at the head of NATO action, military and diplomatic. Now Ukraine is using British-made long-range missiles to strike Russia.