SHIPS AND CIA TIP-OFFS
Investigative journalists have been finishing up their very own analysis to unravel the Nord Stream whodunnit, resulting in generally sensational – if unconfirmed – experiences.
Dutch army intelligence warned the CIA of a Ukrainian plan to explode the pipelines three months earlier than the assault, Dutch broadcaster NOS and Germany’s Die Zeit and ARD mentioned in June. The Washington Put up made an identical declare.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly denied his nation was behind the sabotage.
“I might by no means try this,” he instructed Germany’s Bild newspaper in June, including that he would “wish to see proof”.
The New York Instances wrote in March that US officers had seen intelligence indicating {that a} “pro-Ukrainian group” was accountable, with out Zelenskyy’s data.
German media have focussed their consideration on the “Andromeda”, with reporters from Der Spiegel journal and broadcaster ZDF recreating the journey they imagine was made by the six-person crew.
In keeping with their reporting, a cast passport used to rent the sailboat leads again to a Ukrainian soldier whereas the constitution payment was paid by an organization registered in Poland with ties to a lady in Kyiv.
Nevertheless, Danish media have reported {that a} Russian naval vessel specialised in submarine operations, the SS-750, was photographed close to the location of the blasts days earlier than the assault.
A declare by US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in February that the US was behind the assaults and that Norway assisted was dismissed as “fiction” by the White Home.
FALSE FLAG
Consultants haven’t dominated out a “false flag” operation by Russia, with clues intentionally positioned to pin the blame on Ukraine.
Andreas Umland, an analyst on the Stockholm Centre for Jap European Research, sees Russia as “the probably” perpetrator.
Any suspected involvement by Kyiv in an assault on Europe’s vitality infrastructure might threaten the help of allies, which might profit Russia.
On the similar time, the destroyed pipelines might assist Gazprom keep away from compensation claims for undelivered gasoline, though the corporate displayed a reluctance to maintain the faucets open earlier than the blasts.
Moscow might have sought “to kill two birds with one stone”, Umland mentioned.
The Kremlin has strongly denied duty.