Sweden Abruptly Ends Joint Nord Stream Probe Citing 'National Security,' Refuses to Share Findings
The âinternational joint investigationâ into the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines is already looking like a cover-up.
From TASS, âSweden unwilling to share Nord Stream investigation findings â Der Spiegelâ:
Sweden rejected the idea of sharing its findings from the investigation into the incidents on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines with Germany and Denmark, referring to its high security classification level, Der Spiegel reported on Friday citing sources.
The weekly said that Sweden declined to establish an international joint investigation team to look into the incidents on the Nord Stream system. According to the magazine, Sweden justified its refusal by claiming âthe confidentiality level of the results of its investigation was too high to share them with other states.â
However, as Der Spiegel points out, Sweden had not initially commented on the issue. Speaking about Swedenâs refusal, Berlin said that it still hopes for cooperation with local authorities. Primarily, the German investigators need to assess images of the German armyâs Sea Cat underwater drone, which reportedly shows a larger crater, indicating a powerful explosion.
Moreover, most of the pipeline had been smashed and the current might have washed some parts of the pipe away after the incident. The weekly says that the German authorities believe after conducting an initial analysis that an explosive device equivalent to 500 kilos of TNT might have been used for the blast.
Earlier in the day, Germanyâs ARD television channel reported citing sources in the German government that Germany, Sweden and Denmark gave up plans to jointly investigate the sabotage at the Nord Stream pipelines and will do it separately instead. A German Interior Ministry spokesperson told reporters that the German Federal Police had completed investigative activities on the scene.
Russia was also blocked from taking part in the original (now-ended) joint probe.
From AFP/The Local, âRussia aggrieved at Germany, Denmark and Sweden over Nord Stream probeâ:
The ministry said it âexpressed bewildermentâ over the lack of an official response to a request from Russiaâs Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to involve Russian energy giant Gazprom and ârepresentatives of the competent departmentsâ from Russia in the investigation conducted by Berlin, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
The envoys were told that if Russian experts are not involved âMoscow will proceed from the fact that the named countries have something to hide or they are covering for the perpetrators of these terrorist actsâ, the ministry said.
It added that Russia will not recognise any âpseudo-resultsâ of an investigation without its experts.
After it was blown up, Polish MEP Radoslaw Sikorski openly thanked the US for its destruction.
The way the EU and especially Germany have looked the other way to their critical infrastructure being bombed â most likely by the US or its proxies in Ukraine or Poland â is truly remarkable.
Their economy is being plunged into a depression due to crippling energy prices and the most their âleadersâ are willing to do is whine about the US charging them too much for imported natural gas.
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In 2021, the volume of natural gas transported from Russia to Germany via the pipeline Nord Stream, or North Stream-1, reached 59.2 billion cubic meters, exceeding the annual capacity by 4.2 billion cubic meters. The utilization rate of Nord Stream has steadily increased since 2013, when it was measured at approximately 43 percent of the yearly capacity.
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British navy involved in Nord Stream 2 'terrorist attack' â Russia
UK forces participated in an operation which damaged Europe's energy security, Moscow claims.
Units of the British Navy were involved in a "terrorist attack" , which destroyed the key Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Russian Defence Ministry alleged on Saturday.
Writing on its official Telegram channel, the ministry alleged that Royal Navy operatives âtook part in planning, supporting and implementingâ the plot to blow up the infrastructure in September. It did not provide any direct evidence to support its assertion.
The accusation follows a Russian Foreign Ministry claim that NATO conducted a military exercise during the summer, close to the location where the undersea explosions occurred.
The September incident put the pipelines, connecting Germany to Russia, out of commission. Western countries have blocked a transparent international investigation.
The Defence Ministry further alleged that the same UK operatives trained Ukrainians involved in a drone offensive in Crimea earlier on Saturday.
In late September, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that this summer, NATO conducted military drills not far from Bornholm, which featured intensive use of âdeep-sea equipment.ââ
While the officials stopped short of naming the culprit, they were said to be âworking under the assumption that Russia was behind the blasts.â Moscow has repeatedly denied that it had anything to do with the incident.
Meanwhile, Sky News has cited a UK defense official as saying Nord Stream 1 and 2 could have been damaged by a remotely detonated underwater explosive device. At the time, the broadcaster said the pipelines might have been breached by mines lowered to the seabed, or explosives dropped from a boat or planted by an undersea drone.
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Britons warned food prices to rise again after Russia cancels UN-brokered grain deal
Vladimir Putin collapsed agreement after accusing Royal Navy of helping Ukraine carry out drone attack on its Black Sea Fleet
By Tony Diver, Whitehall Correspondent ; James Kilner and Jamie Johnson, US Correspondent 29 October 2022 ⢠8:35pm
UK food prices could rise even further after Vladimir Putin choked off the supply of grain from Ukraine
- World's largest STEEL PLANTS shutting down in Germany
2 minute readSeptember 2, 20228:41 AM
ArcelorMittal to shut blast furnace in German plant as gas prices soar
The logo of ArcelorMittal at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Ghent, Belgium, July 7, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
- Companies
Sept 2 (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal (MT.LU) said on Friday it would switch off one of two furnaces at its steelworks in the German city of Bremen until further notice from September-end, citing the soaring cost of gas, weak market demand and a negative economic outlook.
The world's second-largest steelmaker said it will also shut down the direct reduction plant at its Hamburg steel factory from the fourth quarter of this year, while keeping workers on shorter hours at both sites.
"The high costs for gas and electricity are putting a heavy strain on our competitiveness. On top of that, from October onwards, there will be the German government's planned gas levy, which will further burden us," Reiner Blaschek, chief executive of ArcelorMittal Germany, said in a statement.
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Former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Trussâ Phone Allegedly Hacked By Kremlin Spies: Report
It has been reported that the personal phone of former U.K. Prime Minister, Liz Truss, was hacked by cyber-spies working for the Kremlin.
The Mail on Sunday newspaper has reported that private message between Liz Truss, the former U.K. Prime Minister, and international foreign ministers, relating to the war in Ukraine during her time as Foreign Secretary, fell into the hands of cyber-spies suspected of working for the Kremlin. Some of those messages, it says, included "detailed discussions about arms shipments." The report, citing unnamed security service sources, claims the hacking incident was discovered during Truss' successful Conservative Party leadership campaign.
Boris Johnson suppressed news of the hacking, report claims
The newspaper claims that details of the phone hacking were "suppressed by Boris Johnson, who was Prime Minister at the time, and the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case."
A U.K. Government spokesperson said that it does not comment on individual security arrangements, adding, "the Government has robust systems in place to protect against cyber threats. That includes regular security briefings for Ministers and advice on protecting their personal data." However, it is reportedly Truss' personal phone that was compromised; the number of which was found to be on sale, along with 25 other government ministers, as I reported earlier this month.
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Nord Stream says 250m section of pipeline âdestroyedâ
Nord Stream AG said Wednesday that a roughly 250-metre (820-feet) section of pipeline was âdestroyedâ, after the operator carried out an investigation on the pipeline after explosions at the end of September.
âCraters with a depth of three to five metres were found on the seabed at a distance of about 248 metres from each otherâ along a Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the operator said in a statement.
âThe section of the pipe between the craters is destroyed,â it said.
Four leaks emerged on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm at the end of September, with seismic institutes reporting that they had recorded two underwater explosions prior to the leaks appearing.
While the leaks were in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone and two of them in the Swedish.
Swedish authorities announced in early October that they had conducted an underwater inspection of the site and that the inspection backed up suspicions of sabotage.
The Nord Stream group, which operates the twin Nord Stream 1 pipelines, has launched its own investigation and said Wednesday it would âcontinue to analyseâ data gathered from the site.
The pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation to Western sanctions over Moscowâs invasion of Ukraine.
Although they were not in operation when the leaks occurred, they both still contained gas which spewed up through the water and into the atmosphere.
Massive Explosion - St. Petersburg, Russia - At Nord Stream Gas Terminal
UPDATE 9:48 AM EST --
We are now told the explosion took place in Vsevolozhsk, a town east of St. Petersburg. State media said that the explosion was caused by a gas pipeline in the region. There were no reports of injuries, and local authorities said that the fire was under control.
A surprising admission has come in a Washington Post report Wednesday morning following a months-long investigation into the Sept. 26 Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline sabotage attacks. While there remains consensus that the explosions were indeed the result of a deliberate act of sabotage, numerous officials in the West now say the evidence is not pointing to Russia.
WaPo begins by recounting the frenzied rush to immediately blame Moscow, which began within a mere hours into the massive gas leaks into the Baltic Sea:
After explosions in late September severely damaged undersea pipelines built to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe, world leaders quickly blamed Moscow for a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage. With winter approaching, it appeared the Kremlin intended to strangle the flow of energy to millions across the continent, an act of "blackmail," some leaders said, designed to threaten countries into withdrawing their financial and military support for Ukraine.
These headlines with images didn't age well (The Telegraph).
And then comes this admission: "But now, after months of investigation, numerous officials privately say that Russia may not be to blame after all for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines."
The Post issued the rare about-face of accusations after interviewing a total of 23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries who have been privy to the international investigation into the sabotage incident which has threatened European energy supplies going into winter.
"There is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage," one European official is quoted as saying.
Further, the report indicated, "Some went so far as to say they didnât think Russia was responsible. Others who still consider Russia a prime suspect said positively attributing the attack â to any country â may be impossible."
Among other prime suspects and theories, typically echoed in independent and alternative media, is that the United States is to blame. At least one UN official and prominent economist shocked a Bloomberg panel in suggesting this in early October...
A German government assessment that was the result of its own investigation has confirmed that explosives were places on the outside of the pipelines and underwater structures, while seismologists have detailed three explosions that caused four total leaks on NS-1 and 2.
The absolute consensus is that a nefarious actor did it, but as WaPo concludes of the various European assessments: "...even those with inside knowledge of the forensic details donât conclusively tie Russia to the attack, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share information about the progress of the investigation, some of which is based on classified intelligence."
A question that hasn't been asked enough in the wake of the sabotage attack is... Cui bono?