Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
September 27, 2022

The War On Germany Just Entered Its Hot Phase

Just yesterday I laid out how the U.S. is winning its war on Europe's industries and people.

That war, hidden behind the U.S. created Ukraine crisis, is designed to destroy Europe's manufacturing advantage compared to the U.S. It is more likely though to strengthen the economic position of China and other Asian economies.

I have argued that Germany must open the Nord Stream II pipeline which can bring Russian natural gas to Germany without crossing other countries' territory. It must also allow Siemens to repair the defect Nord Stream I compressors. It is in fact inevitable if German's industry is to survive.

Others have come to similar conclusion and decided to sabotage the pipelines to make their re-opening impossible:

Three offshore lines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline system have sustained "unprecedented" damage in one day, Nord Stream AG, the operator of the network, said on Tuesday in what one German official has suggested is a "targeted attack”. Nord Stream 2 suffered a gas leak which was then followed by a drop of pressure on Nord Stream 1.

The company also said that it was impossible to estimate when the gas network system's working capability would be restored.

The simultaneous sub sea damage to three pipelines is obviously not an accident.

A German economy official told Tagesspiegel: "We can't imagine a scenario that isn't a targeted attack."

They added: "Everything speaks against a coincidence."


bigger

The war mongers at the British Telegraph claim without any evidence or logic that Russia is the culprit:

Russian sabotage to gas supplies to Europe is feared after three offshore lines of the Nord Stream pipeline system suffered “unprecedented” damage in a single day.
...
Russia has withheld gas supplies to Europe as it seeks to hit back for Western sanctions imposed for the illegal invasion of Ukraine. German newspapers reported sources saying the leaks were as a result of a "targeted attack".

As stated in yesterday's piece the claim that Russia is withholding gas from Europe is outright false:

Nord Stream II was created to make Germany independent from pipelines running through Poland and the Ukraine. Blocking it was the most stupid thing for Germany to do and thus chancellor Scholz did it.

In the following months Poland blocked the Yamal pipeline which also brought Russian gas to Germany. Ukraine followed up with cutting off two Russian pipelines. The main compressor stations of the Nord Stream I pipeline, which the German company Siemens had build and has the maintenance contract, failed one after the other. Sanction are prohibiting Siemens from repairing them.

It is not Russia that has blocked its gas and oil from European markets. It were the German, Polish and Ukrainian governments that did it.

Russia would in fact be happy to sell more. Putin has recently again offered to push as much Russian gas as possible through Nord Stream II to Germany: ...

If Russia were to cut pipelines in the Baltic Sea it would damage those that bring Norwegian gas to Europe, not the pipelines it owns and which give it some leverage.

Russia thus surely has no plausible interest in sabotaging the Nord Stream system. Others though do have such interests. They likely want Germany to 'stay in line' with their war to Decolonize Russia. The major potential actors behind this are the U.S., the British, the Ukrainian and the Polish government or a mixture of those.

Geography, and the shallow depth of the Baltic Sea, seem to exclude that a U.S. or British submarines did the damage. Ukraine does not have access to the Baltic Sea. Poland, which had already tried to prevent or hinder the Nord Stream II construction, is the most likely actor behind this though I doubt that it would dare to act alone.

Consider this from April 2021:

The developers of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline have accused foreign naval forces of "provocative" activity in the vicinity of construction work. The controversial pipeline is about 93 percent complete, and two Russian pipelay vessels are on station and working on the project in Danish waters.

Andrei Minin, the branch director of Gazprom-run Nord Stream 2 AG, told TASS that "foreign warships and vessels were demonstrating higher activity" near the operation, and that "such actions are provocative and can lead to gas pipeline damage." He also accused Poland of deploying a military M-28 patrol aircraft to survey the site.

"The Polish Navy is not conducting provocative operations and has been carrying out its statutory tasks in agreement with international laws," responded the Polish Army's central command in a social media post. "M-28B Bryza planes regularly conduct patrol flights in the Baltic Sea region."

Poland strongly opposes the development of Nord Stream 2, which will give Gazprom a subsea alternative route for supplying natural gas to Western European customers. At present, that gas has to pass through overland pipeline networks in Poland and Ukraine, bringing in valuable transit fees and providing both nations - which do not always have cordial relations with Russia - a measure of energy security.

Followed by this from May 2021:

Poland has reacted angrily to President Joe Biden’s decision to waive US sanctions on Nord Stream II, warning the move could threaten energy security across Central and Eastern Europe.

“The information is definitely not positive from the security point of view, as we know perfectly that Nord Stream II is not only a business project – it is mostly a geopolitical project,” said Piotr Muller, a spokesman for the Polish government.

On February 7 Biden stated that he would decided if Nord Stream II opens:

After both leaders appeared to avoid mentioning the pipeline, under repeated questions from reporters at an afternoon press conference, Biden, standing next to the German chancellor said Nord Stream 2 would not move forward if Russia invades Ukraine, in a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin of potential economic consequences.

"If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the -- the border of Ukraine again, then there will be -- there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2," Biden said during the press conference with Scholz, who did not go as far as Biden, but insisted the U.S. and Germany remain "absolutely united."

On February 27 Biden sanctioned the company owning the pipeline.

Under its current rightwing leadership Poland has been extremely hostile to Germany. This month it even renewed is demand for war reparations from Germany, an issue that had been settle decades ago:

Poland’s top politician said Thursday that the government will seek equivalent of some $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany for the Nazis’ World War II invasion and occupation of his country.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the Law and Justice party, announced the huge claim at the release of a long-awaited report on the cost to the country of years of Nazi German occupation as it marks 83 years since the start of World War II.
...
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday the government’s position remains “unchanged” in that “the question of reparations is concluded.”

“Poland long ago, in 1953, waived further reparations and has repeatedly confirmed this waiver,” the ministry said in an emailed response to a Associated Press query about the new Polish report.

It is high time for the German government to wake up and to recognize that a war has been launched against its country.

And no. It is not Russia that is waging it.

Posted by b on September 27, 2022 at 12:03 UTC | Permalink

Comments
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Like most European countries, Germany has American military bases in it, filled with American imperial troops. These troops are not, of course, to 'defend' Germany against any alleged Russian 'threat' but are instead to prop up the Berlin regime against its own people. So the regime relies on the Americans to keep order and therefore is under the control of the Americans. In other words, the German regime, like the British regime, like...well I could go on, is simply a colony of the American Empire.

Given this, it is incapable of acting on its own, or of defending its own interests.

So yes, the Americans will get away with this. Of course they will.

Posted by: Hidari | Sep 27 2022 12:09 utc | 1

Waren dort Schiffe ?
Link to Diaspora

Posted by: Ganz-Pjotr | Sep 27 2022 12:25 utc | 2

While it's true that USA military are there to "keep things in line" I sometimes wonder what they will actually do when people take to the streets? Apparently German military is already patrolling, ostensibly so that the citizens suffer cold dark hunger in an orderly manner.

Posted by: Chevrus | Sep 27 2022 12:26 utc | 3

The collective west is in panic mode. They know the peeps are not at all happy, and if nothing else, that's what keeps things contained for the time being. But..

Time is running out

Posted by: thecelticwithinme | Sep 27 2022 12:30 utc | 4

Yes Germany has us and uk troops on its land which will of course make it difficult to go against Washington but what looks great on paper is not necessarily great in reality. If push comes to shove, I'm sure the germans won't be overly worried about these troops. The ball is in the German court, the future of the dollar or the future of humanity, not a nice choice.

Posted by: Eoin Clancy | Sep 27 2022 12:30 utc | 5


"....Poland, which had already tried to prevent or hinder the Nord Stream II construction, is the most likely actor behind this though I doubt that it would dare to act alone....."


I find b's scenario plausible.... fingers (tentatively) pointed at Poland..... and in cahoots with the CIA and MI6, I would imagine

I also think that it will be unlikely that the German gov't or its people will 'wake up'.
though I should hope so for their sake

Posted by: michaelj72 | Sep 27 2022 12:31 utc | 6

Question for anyone familiar with the legalities. Does Denmark have liability here?

Posted by: Bob | Sep 27 2022 12:35 utc | 7

AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎
@AZmilitary1
👴🇺🇸🇩🇪🛢7th Februar 2022 "The leader of the free world" Biden "There will be no longer Nord Stream,we will bring end to it"

Journalist-"How will you do that exactly,snince project is in Germany's control?"

Joe Biden-"I promise you we will be able to do that"

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/status/1574702376262701056

Video embedded in Tweet

Posted by: Down South | Sep 27 2022 12:36 utc | 8

To commit such terrorist acts, destroying 2 underwater gas pipelines are acts of terrorism, it would require the use of a . . . submarine! I wonder whose sub did this?!?

Germany is finished.

Posted by: Sam Smith | Sep 27 2022 12:37 utc | 9

Vengance against Germans who had nothing to do with anything by people who weren't alive when the war occurred. I'm an amateur World War 2 fanatic who has read many accounts of the happenings and reasons for that war, and the way the Poles treated the German population living in their territory after the Great War leading up to the National Socialists revolution and taking of power is why the Wehrmacht invaded them. It's time for Europe to get over these old hatreds, before the current populations do get find out that war is hell in the same ways their great grandfathers were educated.

Posted by: Jax Ryan | Sep 27 2022 12:39 utc | 10

That war, hidden behind the U.S. created Ukraine crisis, is designed to destroy Europe's manufacturing advantage compared to the U.S.

b

From IntelSlava

🇪🇺⚡The energy crisis will hit like the disaster of 2009 - Bloomberg

Governments are spending hundreds of billions of euros to ease the pain of high gas prices, but that won't stop a deep recession.

The economic damage from cutting off Russian gas supplies is mounting rapidly in Europe and could eventually eclipse the effects of the global financial crisis.

With a continent-wide recession looking imminent, a harsh winter is setting in for chemical manufacturers, steel mills and automakers, starved of essential raw materials, who, along with households, are sounding the alarm about skyrocketing energy bills.

Posted by: Down South | Sep 27 2022 12:40 utc | 11

In February 2021 Polish ships were trying to prevent the Fortuna pipe-laying vessel from finishing Nor Stream 2. Interfax reported then "On February 22, while pipes were being laid south of the Danish island of Bornholm, the Polish fishing vessel SWI-106 entered the buffer zone from the south ..." And there's this from the same period: "Andrei Minin, the branch director of Gazprom-run Nord Stream 2 AG, told TASS that 'foreign warships and vessels were demonstrating higher activity' near the operation, and that 'such actions are provocative and can lead to gas pipeline damage.' He also accused Poland of deploying a military M-28 patrol aircraft to survey the site."

Posted by: Jeremn | Sep 27 2022 12:41 utc | 12

Well. My work colleague says it must be the Russians. When I pointed out that they could have stopped it at the source in Russia he said that you can’t predict what Russians will do.
What an imbecile.
And this is example of the average person in Sweden where I currently reside.
Bunch of morons.

Posted by: MrFijiWiji | Sep 27 2022 12:43 utc | 13

My money is on nations interested in closing the door on a German-Russian deal being behind this stunt.

But I really don't see Russian gas having anything but a marginal future role in the EU. As we can see in this article Gazprom is also focus on finding new customers abroad and domestically.

https://www.upstreamonline.com/production/gazprom-goodbye-europe-hello-china-and-asia/2-1-1304413

"Domestic lure

Aksyutin also said Gazprom expects to see a strong rise in Russian domestic consumption by 2030 as a result of company’s investments in gas processing and polymer injection facilities and an expansion of regional pipeline networks to reach more households.

Two major gas processing plants are under construction near the Baltic port of Ust-Luga and in the town of Amur close to the Russian-Chinese border, producing feedstock for plastics and polymer industries, he said."

Posted by: Poul | Sep 27 2022 12:46 utc | 14

"Geography, and the shallow depth of the Baltic Sea, seem to exclude that a U.S. or British submarines did the damage. "

More precisely, shallow depth of Danish straits probably should prevent submarines from entering Baltic unnoticed, ships that enter Baltic are limited to draught of 15 meters. A special purpose small submarine could enter "invisibly", but probably only with the knowledge of Danish authorities. Similarly, Danes probably observe the waters around Bornholm with sensors given Scandinavian paranoia about Soviet/Russian submarines.

99% it is a NATO action, Poland being most probable willing actor but only with a "blessing".

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 27 2022 12:49 utc | 15

Germans are sheep it seems. According to a family member that lives there. Everything is still close to normal. Sure they dont want to talk about it but they are still calmly riding their bikes to work and eating a microwaved potato for lunch. Sad people.

Posted by: Comandante | Sep 27 2022 12:51 utc | 16

Name one instance were the Russians have broken through the Ukrainian defensive line and attacked the line from the back.

I don't know of one instance.

This is standard practice.

You break through the line at some weak point and attack from the back.

Attacking into the teeth of the enemy is a fool's game.

Yet that seems to have been the only strategy employed by the Russians.

Maybe Putin, or the Russian high command don't really like the Ukrainian rebels.

Are they trying to kill them?

Putin's support for the Ukrainian rebels seems tepid, at best.

The Luhansk & Donetsk People's Republic forces are reported to do most of the close fighting (and dying), etc, etc.

Putin even let condemned neo-Nazis go in a prisoner exchange.

Posted by: Jack | Sep 27 2022 12:52 utc | 17

From the Danish National Defence. A video of one of the gas leaks.

https://www.forsvaret.dk/da/nyheder/2022/gaslakage-i-ostersoen/

Posted by: Poul | Sep 27 2022 12:52 utc | 18

Piotr Berman, comment 15

Please don't say Scandinavian. Denmark and Norway has nothing to do with Sweden's submarine paranoia.

Posted by: Poul | Sep 27 2022 12:55 utc | 19

Jax Ryan @ 10 "I'm an amateur World War 2 fanatic who has read many accounts of the happenings and reasons for that war"

Then read this;

preearth.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1174

Most interesting.

Posted by: Jak | Sep 27 2022 12:58 utc | 20

If this starts a precedent, Britain , being an Island, has immense vulnerabilities.
Multiple gas pipelines, multiple high capacity electrical interconnectors with Europe and multiple data connections via undersea cables.
The British Government would have to be really stupid and incompetent to open this can of worms.

Which on present performance makes it likely they did it.

Posted by: CitizenSmith | Sep 27 2022 13:06 utc | 21

The news is interesting, but not unexpected. I wrote a long time ago that the "collective West" is absolutely insane, and many do not understand the seriousness of this madness. I don't mean ordinary citizens, residents. I'm talking about political elites (and adjoining media, expert and other elites). These people are capable of anything. Literally. Deliberately spread the most incredible lies, commit assassination attempts, organize terrorist attacks and sabotage, support outright criminals, etc. Anything to maintain their positions and achieve their goals.

In this case, the question for me is which of the Western special services organized this sabotage on the gas pipeline - in any case, I am almost sure that the Americans took part in sabotage in one form or another. Poland's participation is very likely. Plus, the position of Denmark raises big questions. It is unlikely that the country's authorities remained completely unaware of the impending sabotage.

By the way, back in 2021, the Russian media were wondering about the military security of the gas pipeline. Very interesting and almost prophetic in this regard is the article of the newspaper Vzglyad (april 2021!).

Posted by: alaff | Sep 27 2022 13:08 utc | 22

Great. America's lapdogs shouldn't get any of Russia's gas. Russia's resources should be sold only to people who deserve them, like India, China, and Africa. Europe should be left impoverished and dead.

The European economy is a house of cards, only propped up by the untold trillions of dollars worth of resources that America has stolen from the global south through their global neoliberal loan sharking business. It's about time the European economy readjusted to reflect the actual value of European contributions: zero.

Posted by: FVK | Sep 27 2022 13:08 utc | 23

I have no doubt that Russia will be proclaimed by the west as the guilty party for the damage to NS. The agreement that it must be sabotage can in no way, in the current state of lunacy, lead to some other culprit. It's the same old pattern - create a problem and blame it on Russia. Just like they are doing with the alleged threat of use of nuclear weapons. Putin was very clear in his statement about nuclear weapons, yet the public in the West is bombarded daily with claims Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons "against Europe". Totally made up. The West is speaking with one voice in that regard. Just like so many times before when it used its own fabricated claims as a pretext to commit an atrocity (think Syria, Afghanistan as recent examples, Ukraine).
There will soon be one voice again that Russia sabotaged the pipelines, I expect. It is just an endless stream of crimes, one worse than the other.These arch criminals were elected in the great Western democracies, and keep being elected.

By the way, this is what the Polish PM said today at the launch of the Baltic Pipe, a joint Polish Danish ivestment:The era of Russian domination in the gas sphere, marked by threats and extortion, ends today. We are entering a new era of sovereignty, energy freedom and increased energy security.
See the Polish PM twitter account for more, with photos:
https://twitter.com/PremierRP_en?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Posted by: JB | Sep 27 2022 13:11 utc | 24

Germans amaze me. A manufacturing power house that gave away it's economic advantage of low priced energy to get prohibitively high priced energy, a martial race that has abashed themselves to a country that actually smashed them in two world wars and still base troops within it's borders.
Germany is the only western country that has least to lose if the current world order is replaced with a multipolar world order. Now, countries like UK or Fran needs the current order for their prosperity like France needing preferential access to its former colonies, or UK needing powerbrokers of it's former colonies to park their ill gotten booties in uk financial sector. Germany forced to compete in more fairer terms because of it's defeat in both world wars can actually thrive within a multipolar world order, so why do they bind themselves with us and it's parasitic allies?
I actually can see some resentment with regards to Russia( still makes no sense as somewhat incompetent Russia serves german interests well by being a source of cheap energy and a market) but what's with the hostile attitude towards China?

Posted by: A.z | Sep 27 2022 13:12 utc | 25

Conveniently, Poland today inaugurated a new gas pipeline, called Baltic Pipe, from North Sea gas fields directly to its NW coast. An eye for an eye, pipe for a pipe... catch my drift?

https://twitter.com/3SeasEurope/status/1573204981242527744/photo/1

Posted by: unimperator | Sep 27 2022 13:13 utc | 26

@michaelj72 | Sep 27 2022 12:31 utc | 6

There is no Poland or Germany. There is only NATO. What is called Poland is just an administrative district of the American empire. It is not an independent state and has no national sovereignty.

Posted by: FVK | Sep 27 2022 13:14 utc | 27

Name one instance were the Russians have broken through the Ukrainian defensive line and attacked the line from the back. I don't know of one instance. Posted by: Jack | Sep 27 2022 12:52 utc | 17

It's called cauldron, stupid. More or less the only tactic the Russians use since the war against the golden horde.

In these cauldrons the Russians fire from three sides on the Ukrainians. The fourth side will stay open to avoid "last man standing" battles. But the stupid Ukrainians use the fourth side to put more meat into the cauldron. That is why the Russians call it a meat grinder now.

Posted by: Tuka Ram | Sep 27 2022 13:21 utc | 28

Lol the propaganda in the west is so stupid, headlines are that Russia is the culprit. So Russia destroy their own valuable gas pipeline?? Really?!

Sigh, obviousy a work of US/UK/Nato sabotage forces, one has to be friggin blind not to see that!

Posted by: Zanon | Sep 27 2022 13:21 utc | 29

With this sabotage, will Europe finally see who there real enemy is? They allowed the troops to remain after WWII, then they allowed the banks to be drawn into the Wall Street financialization casino so that they are precariously dependent, and now they are doing nothing about the total destruction of their industrial production.

When does a leader become a traitor? Seriously.

Posted by: mwm | Sep 27 2022 13:24 utc | 30

Everyone is making too big a deal out of the gas crisis.

In the long-term, no gas to Germany will mean new sources of power and independence from Russia.

They can setup more fission plants - this situation finally put the pressure hard on the Green movements fear of nuclear power and gives them a chance to pivot to a logically consistent position. Plus, German efficiency is legendary - they’ll find new ways to do more with less and export that tech to the world.

Really - when people say German industry will be destroyed by this they should get real - the wealth of nations is in their people and organization. Germans are smart, hardworking and organized. They’ll bounce back, just like they bounced back from World War I and World War II.

Posted by: GoFast | Sep 27 2022 13:29 utc | 31

i work in the city of london and i can say this is probably technical or operator error mistake
or russians destroying own property
we should not waste are time wondering why the russian always shoot themselves in the feet and head by mistake or on porpose
talking of dolphins the russians have been using shark and dolphin and siberian florida manitie with laser helmet cutting tools for years

the russian and new hitler putin have gone insane for shirley

Posted by: gordon | Sep 27 2022 13:29 utc | 32

"...but insisted the U.S. and Germany remain "absolutely united.""

This is the problem.


"It is high time for the German government to wake up and to recognize that a war has been launched against its country."

How is this going to work with the anti-German, Transatlanticist WEF greens in power?

Posted by: grippo | Sep 27 2022 13:30 utc | 33

I dont often tune into MSM, but when i do i am awe-struck. Russian leveling cities, Russia shelling an NPP in which they have hundreds of troops stationed, Russia now damage their own pipeline even though they could simply shut off any pipeline because they supply the gas going into it...and the feeble minded cowards buy it.

So it looks like the USA and the its suicide-poodles are going to bring the roof down on all of the EU and maybe even some collateral damage as well....

Posted by: Chevrus | Sep 27 2022 13:30 utc | 34

Europe is falling apart, and the lack of cheap energy combined with high prices for other goods will see the EU fracture as countries compete against each other for cheaper resources, there could be more ill will and even skirmishes between European nations at their border regions.

I'm sorry to say the EU leaders have brought this upon themselves by complying with the USA's wishes on Russian fuel sources and by applying stupid sanctions on Russia as well, instead of thinking about their own citizens wellbeing first.

Of course, big business would've put pressure on EU government to comply with US wishes to avoid restrictions of their good entering the US, and it looks as though EU governments have complied with this measure further exacerbating the problem. Then we have the Atlanticists politicians that are in power in EU governments whose bank accounts are full because they've done their job of persuading EU governments to damage their own economies so that US businesses can step in and provide services and products to Europeans as the European companies either moved out or went bust.

By the looks of things many European leaders will continue down this road to misery and higher prices, they are too afraid to disobey the US, that, they'd rather see their own people suffer greatly first before saying enough is enough. Its open to debate whether or not the actual EU movement will survive the coming very tough times, I mean why would the people of Europe believe a word that the EU leaders now say, with prices spiraling out of control because of their actions.

When times are really tough and they will get worse, countries tend to batten down the hatches and focus on self-interest, food, power,housing etc become the goals, the EU with its sanctions and following the USA's part in this has done untold damage to its own.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Sep 27 2022 13:32 utc | 35

I've read that German manufacturers are planning to set up shop in the USA ... from a US media source of course.

I also know that the Chinese and Germans have had a close relationship in the area of manufacturing for decades now and that China has been turning out remarkably good quality German designed industrial equipment for half the price the Germans can at home. It seemed to me that the combination of German design and Chinese manufacturing was a world beater.

Has anyone heard of German companies relocating to China because even if they were I don't believe the media would report it.

Posted by: Dave_k | Sep 27 2022 13:33 utc | 36

.....and the Gordon from the City of London shows up with sharks with lasers in their mouths! And to top it off he thrown in a 'new hitler'....Clearly a low pay grade, because grammar and punctuation is for chumps!

Posted by: Chevrus | Sep 27 2022 13:33 utc | 37

>With this sabotage, will Europe finally see who there real enemy is?

No, never.
In Europe the masses already blame Russia for the sabotage.
Any rapprochement with Russia is unthinkable for European mind.

Posted by: marko | Sep 27 2022 13:34 utc | 38

In Holland, they are happy with the news how Russians are running away to avoid mobilization

https://www.nu.nl/295553/video/russen-staan-in-kilometerslange-file-bij-georgische-grens.html

Posted by: marko | Sep 27 2022 13:36 utc | 39

I'm holding that back for months now. I'm sure I will earn distrust and maybe will be called a troll.

A friend of mine working at Siemens Energy as an engineer keeps claiming that B's assumption about the state of the compressor turbine is wrong. According to my friend he asked the responsible engineers and there is nothing wrong about the compressor turbine that is back from Canada and now in Mülheim. I suppose those engineers aren't specialists for the accordance to sanction laws, but I firmly believe the turbine is technically alright.
Another claim my friend makes is that russian statements about oil leaks in the last NS1 turbine are outright ridiculous. According to him there could be dozens of propable damages, but not oil leaks. He believes the Russians are lying about this last turbine but in a very obvious way that everyone familiar with the technology understands as a lie.

Posted by: Moses | Sep 27 2022 13:36 utc | 40

NDR-Artikel from 3.8.2022:

"At around 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the ship convoy had already passed the Danish island of Bornholm, when the Americans switched off their automatic ship identification systems (AIS) and could no longer be located without further ado."

In the german original:

"Am Mittwochmorgen gegen 6 Uhr hat der Verband die dänische Insel Bornholm bereits passiert, dann schalten die Amerikaner ihre automatischen Schiffs-Identifikations-Systeme (AIS) aus und sind ohne Weiteres nicht mehr zu orten."

https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/US-Navy-zeigt-Flagge-in-der-oestlichen-Ostsee,usnavy102.html

Posted by: Andreas | Sep 27 2022 13:37 utc | 41

Guardian live

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/sep/27/russia-ukraine-war-live-news-voting-in-sham-referendums-due-to-end-japanese-consul-interrogated-in-russia

Swedish seismologists registered explosions near the Nord Stream pipelines – reports

The Swedish national broadcaster SVT is reporting that seismologists registered explosions near the Nord Stream pipelines in the last 36 hours. In a report published in the last few minutes it said:

SVT can reveal that measuring stations in both Sweden and Denmark registered strong underwater explosions in the same area as the gas leaks on Monday. “There is no doubt that these are explosions,” says Björn Lund, lecturer in seismology at the Swedish National Seismic Network, SNSN.

The first explosion was recorded at 02.03am on the night of Monday and the second at 7.04pm on Monday evening.

The warnings about the gas leaks came from the Maritime Administration at 1.52pm and 8.41pm on Monday, respectively, after ships detected bubbles on the surface.

SVT has obtained the coordinates of the measured explosions and they are in the same area where the gas leaks were registered.

It further quoted Lund saying of the measurements: “You can clearly see how the waves bounce from the bottom to the surface. There is no doubt that it was a blast. We even had a station in Gnosjö that picked this up.”

Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Sep 27 2022 13:42 utc | 42

Chevrus | Sep 27 2022 13:30 utc | 35

Russia now damage their own pipeline even though they could simply shut off any pipeline because they supply the gas going into it..

They did not need to shut off either of these pipelines because Scholtz has already done it.

NStream I is shut because Scholtz dare not permit shipping compressors from Siemens Germany to Russia
NStream II is shut because Scholtz never had the courage to open it in the first place.

Posted by: Lapin | Sep 27 2022 13:45 utc | 43

@42 Andreas

This. And most will probably not get it.

Posted by: grits | Sep 27 2022 13:46 utc | 44

Piotr Berman, comment 15

Please don't say Scandinavian. Denmark and Norway has nothing to do with Sweden's submarine paranoia.

Posted by: Poul | Sep 27 2022 12:55 utc | 19

That may be the case. Actually, I liked it most when Swedes actually found a sunk Russian submarine after futile decades, and it was a wreck from 1915.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 27 2022 13:49 utc | 45

On a sliding scale Poland is the most likely,Russia,least. Polands motive is obvious,the current leadership hates Germany as much,if no more than it hates Russia. Russias motive? The west will throw accusations behind the scenes,as Russia doing it would be utterly illogical.RT is broadcasting Bidens "threats" against NS2 which leaves America somewhere a bit below Poland.

Posted by: Bob | Sep 27 2022 13:50 utc | 46

mwm

With this sabotage, will Europe finally see who there real enemy is?

Unfortunately no, westerners are the most dumbed down people ever.. The conspiracy theories in the western minds are going in full mode when it comes to Russia. Imagine if Putin was assassinated, the west would claim Putin was behind the assassination!

Posted by: Zanon | Sep 27 2022 13:51 utc | 47

Posted by: Moses | Sep 27 2022 13:36 utc | 41

I can't speak to the leaks on the last compressor pumps, but Russia never said that the overhauled pumps are bad. Russia said that it couldn't accept them because they were under sanction and so acceptance would be breaking the law. The Germans and the Canadians couldn't come up with a legal document exempting the equipment because the sanctions they fall under aren't well defined. Russia's been playing malicious compliance on the NS1 turbines. To some degree the controversy around the remaining compressor pumps probably falls under the same malicious compliance regime based on equipment ownership and long term maintenance contract issues.

Posted by: Lex | Sep 27 2022 13:53 utc | 48

Moses@41
Does anyone doubt that what you tell us is true? I don't think so. The Russian complaints have to do with the refusal of Siemens to provide documentation, regarding the servicing.
There is a suspicion that Siemens, who appear tp have been involved with the Mossad plot to introduce Stuxnet into Iran's nuclear plants, refuse to supply the proper legal documentation to Gazprom.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 27 2022 13:54 utc | 49

"Geography, and the shallow depth of the Baltic Sea, seem to exclude that a U.S. or British submarines did the damage."

Never ever EVER exclude the US as a possible culprit in something of this magnitude.

Posted by: Michigan Dude | Sep 27 2022 13:56 utc | 50

Assuming one can somehow get around the sanctions issue, fixing it is technically going to be hard enough.
But how do you prevent the bad actor from repeating this?

Posted by: grits | Sep 27 2022 13:56 utc | 51

Money will buy anything.
Oligarchs aka billionaires can buy armies and they can buy weapons.

When provocative sabotage on critical infrastructure occurs, we should not dismiss the possibility that one of the World’s wealthy scumbags is the culprit.

Compared to the damage wrought by Soros’ poisonous interferences, blowing up a pipeline is nothing.

We need to keep a list of private actors with the means and known motives to destabilise Global affairs.

Posted by: CitizenSmith | Sep 27 2022 13:58 utc | 52

I could make an argument that Russia would sabotage the pipelines, though it will always be weaker than an argument that Poland/US/UK did it. The problem with the Russian sabotage is the potential for Russia getting caught doing that. Getting caught would be extremely damaging for Russia, which has other means and methods to cut Germany off. The NS2 breaks make the least amount of sense for Russia since it's never even moved product and doesn't change the German energy situation at all. It only affects the potential and long term energy politics of Europe, and given that Russia long ago said it would never run the designed product quantity because that product was being shifted to domestic consumption, Russia has lots of other ways to restrict its potential flow that fall well short of "cutting off" European energy deliveries.

Posted by: Lex | Sep 27 2022 13:59 utc | 53

Sad to say that the first perpetrators that I though of were the Special Forces of Germany, the KSK. Can they work under German Intelligence authority rather than German military authority? I don't know if Germany has that 'loophole' like the US does to circumvent constitutional processes.

I'm not randomly bashing the KSK. The US Special Operations Command wouldn't hesitate for a second to act against common US citizens and make them suffer or die, if necessary, in order to harm an enemy (real or imaginary). Some would be uncomfortable doing it, but most would shrug it off as 'for the greater good' and do it anyway.

There were several reasons the US elevated all special operations to their own unified command, and one was to make sure the Deep State had their own obedient gang of thugs answerable to nobody but them and operating in the shadows, without all that constitutional nonsense to slow them down.

Posted by: PavewayIV | Sep 27 2022 14:02 utc | 54

Underwater drone warfare
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

In some ways perhaps the easiest possibility and technically it could have been anyone.

I am presupposing that the drone(s) (or any divers) were not plonked into the water from some boat nearly right above (too obvious) but instead came in from people above water on the coastline.

Denmark is clearly the closet and most practical for anyone, including Ukrainians, USians, Russians, Hungarians, or Swiss :P

If I had the time I would be looking for or trying to guess the relevant distance, depth, and water temperature (brr).

The US has long distance (originally) Norwegian underwater drones that might suit the job if modified with other designs. The US has previous lost various long distance underwater drones both on the coast of Yemen and several times in Chinese waters.

Silver lining: "people" can now shut up about Russian gas (yes I know there's still more elsewhere).

Deescalating escalation? Third parties giving the warmongers what they want at a time they didn't want it?

Could be a long term stroke of good luck no matter what the perpetrators thought they achieved.

Russia is the only one with an alibi; they don't truly care any longer because it's up to the EUrons to sort their own mess out.

Next:
The US interrupts/interferes with the pipelines in the North Sea that I was corrected on earlier this year (much obliged, thank you Norwegian) to really corner Europe. Isn't NATO great? (Sarcasm).

[Not read other comments and need to get groceries done so see you all later!]

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Sep 27 2022 14:02 utc | 55

"magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter scale" -- that is no anchor drag or accident. A state actor did this.

Above, there is a link to a speech where Biden said he will get rid of the pipeline if Ukraine is invaded by Russia.

Somewhere Is aw a report of a US frigate in the area with transponder turned off.

My guess is that the USA did it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/sep/27/russia-ukraine-war-live-news-voting-in-sham-referendums-due-to-end-japanese-consul-interrogated-in-russia#top-of-blog

The apparent leaks in the Nord Stream pipeline are both near the island of Bornholm, which belongs to Denmark in the Baltic sea.

Sweden’s SVT quotes seismologist Björn Lund saying that the area where they detected explosions is not an area usually used for military drills. He told SVT: “We usually get information about explosions that take place underwater, but sometimes we don’t get it. In this case, we have not received any information.”

According to Lund, one of the explosions had a magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter scale, and was recorded at 30 measuring stations in southern Sweden.

Posted by: PP | Sep 27 2022 14:04 utc | 56

Lots of plausible arguments. I posted about these events in the last thread and included a 6D chess Russian action as a possibility (escalate threats on Germany while sowing uncertainty and division in NATO?). That got a bit more airplay than it deserved by my replying to some comments, particularly since a lengthy repair time would negate the option of reopening NS2 by winter, which is clearly not only in Germany's interest, but Russia's too. The proximity to Danish territory of the sabotage is also an issue. Even with drones, whoever did it took a very big risk... unless Denmark was in on it too...

Nevertheless, this is a very serious escalation, and any possibility that a fellow EU or NATO member would engage in sabotage against a major EU member like Germany, an act of war, is extremely concerning. Poland was also my prime culprit in such a scenario. Motive, means and opportunity. A smaller player like Denmark hiding behind US cover should also not be excluded, though motive feels weak, considering the potential down sides. Perhaps the US acting alone then?

Despite the current Government, there must be senior people in Germany (Navy, BND, Industrialists to name a few) who are competent and aware of the actual situation and risks, if we can put 2 and 2 together, or at least entertain all the possibilities, surely they can too.

That such an action would be left unanswered, assuming a fellow NATO member is responsible for it, also seems unrealistic, even Scholtz cannot be that feckless. With former chancellor Schroeder still maintaining ties with Russia's Govt and Gas sectors, one would imagine now is the time to use those channels to ensure the strongest of Russian denials, and plan for some response before any other escalation makes matters any worse. Isn't Germany still supplying Poland through the Yamal pipeline? If Germany doesn't respond, then i hope at least Russia will. There is a lot of oil and gas flowing elsewhere in the Western world... if the gloves are off, then no point hitting back with them on.

Posted by: Et Tu | Sep 27 2022 14:04 utc | 57

You nailed it when you said that the sabotage was probably a joint effort of the US, UK, Ukraine and Poland. It's such a pity that Germany is allowing itself to be bullied by everybody.

Posted by: Steve | Sep 27 2022 14:07 utc | 58

bevin | Sep 27 2022 13:54 utc | 50

Gazprom complaints are that Siemens have not delivered the compressor back to the operational site nor have they set it to work for acceptance tests/handover.

Siemens will not do this nor will it deliver sanctions-waiver documentation to Gazprom so absent a compressor and a waiver the compressor could never have been used on NS I

But it is hard to see that Gazprom has ever been worried about it; the longer they leave the gas in the ground the more valuable it becomes and they are not short of customers.

Posted by: Lapin | Sep 27 2022 14:08 utc | 59

Let it be known that several years ago the US got caught spying on Merkel and others in some sort of arrangement with Denmark.

If I had one guess on who is behind this it would be Professor Nuland, in the pantry, with the candlestick.

Posted by: chunga | Sep 27 2022 14:08 utc | 60

Sweden did not have submarine paranoia, they had to deal with first a US/USSR/Swedish joint 'whiskey on the rocks' incident in 1981.
The Soviets were in all likeliness being given an offer that they couldnt refuse. Namely a continuation of the US-USSR Trade deal where the Fortune 500 US companies had been involved since 1973, but which in 1981 had temporarily been interupted after the Afghanwar started.
The said deal from 1973 came after Nixon in 1972 offered the Soviets all the services and proucts they desired. The JBS reproduction of that document was available until recently on the web archive but vanished after I began linking to it.
Nixons offer was probably caused by the Soviets having captured the (empty) Apollo13 out of the sea.
Meanwhile the 'Houston we have a problem' hoax was being disseminated to the public Later the Soviets allowed the americans to come and take the capsule back from the USSR.
Thus the initial submarine affair really happened and so did what followed, namely US/UK intrusions in swedish waters in full complicity with some swedish naval officers and some, like Karl Anderson, who didnt know about this conspiracy.
Of course US and UK have the capacity to enter the baltic sea in this manner. Apparently Britains Porpoise was involved and secretely organised minisubs.
Ola Thunander's Navigationsexperten(2021) exposes revealing details about the three-country conspiracy from 1981 and his previous volume Det Svenska Ubåtskriget(2019) explains more about the minisubs and gives an overall view.
One such minisub was also sighted on the westcoast. An Italian model and one turned up in the midst of Stockholm. No paranoia. And the wellinformed Bernard surely knew all or most of this(?)
He may still be right about Poland and btw who knows what Poland was up to during the Walesa period?

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Sep 27 2022 14:09 utc | 61

Military Summary keeps mentioning the Ukrainian barrier regiments. I’m guessing NATO have “barrier regiments” to keep entire countries in line?

Posted by: Guy L’Estrange | Sep 27 2022 14:10 utc | 62

It is all happening very quickly, the entire House of Cards is falling apart.

The first domino was in Italy- read this article https://countercurrents.org/2022/09/introducing-giorgia-meloni-how-the-united-states-opened-the-door-for-fascisms-return-to-italy/?swcfpc=1.
The second the UK. Philip Roddis quotes Adam Tooze today:

"...Meanwhile and back to my point about Naomi’s shock doctrine coming to Britain, here’s a view from the far side of the pond. Writing today in the Guardian – What is Kwasi Kwarteng really up to? One answer: this is a reckless gamble to shrink the state – Adam Tooze, professor in economic history at Columbia University, opens with this …

"Markets have delivered a devastating judgment on Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax-cutting mini-budget. The pound has collapsed to historic lows. And investors have sold UK government debt, driving the price of bonds down and the effective interest upwards at a rate not seen since the currency crises of the 1950s. The combination of the two is particularly worrying because it signals what some fear could become a comprehensive loss of confidence in the pound and UK assets.

"You might ask how it could be otherwise. How did the government expect the markets to react when it followed a giant energy crisis-fighting package, roughly costed at £150bn, with a further £45bn in tax cuts that primarily benefit the rich? It also delivered this news at a time when inflation is running faster than at any point since the 1970s and flouted the need for vetting by the Office for Budget Responsibility. What did it expect?"

… offers this halfway through …

"If [the markets] had found the Kwarteng vision of economic policy plausible, rather than selling off sterling in response to the mini-budget, they would have bought into sterling on the expectation of profiting from higher interest rates. Instead, investors simply want out of what looks to most analysts like a doomed experiment. To hold sterling assets they are now demanding what some are calling a “moron risk premium”. To hold debts issued by such an incompetent government requires a reward."

… and concludes with this:

"Did the Truss government unleash this avalanche on purpose? That is hardly what the “moron premium” suggests. But we should certainly expect them to turn the crisis that they have created against the public sector in pursuit of their misbegotten vision of a small-state revolution."

This isn't Truss's 'vision' being implemented, it is a government falling apart and the country going with it.

Stupidity has consequences- the Germans are learning that, as are the British and the Italians. And in all three countries the Opposition is as clueless as the government- indistinguishable in terms of policies.

Is it different anywhere else? Not in Poland where the old trick of putting a Priest's cassock over the Fascist uniforms is being played. Nor in the Baltic states where they don't bother to disguise what they are.

The entire continent is falling to pieces and the fascists are a snarling pack or rabid dogs, just waiting to tear things apart.

Change is a wonderful thing but sometimes-just when you thought things couldn't get worse- they do.

The Kremlin is probably feeling happy to have been kicked off the Titanic into the lifeboats. Now watch while it rows away.

Posted by: bevin | Sep 27 2022 14:10 utc | 63

Is there any doubt that after "investigation" it'll be concluded and hyped by the
compliant media that the Russians did it?

Posted by: Ivan | Sep 27 2022 14:13 utc | 64

The Baltic Pipe between Norway and Poland is in full operation since yesterday. On the same day NS2 and NS1 goes destroyed! What a coincidence!

Posted by: Wolle | Sep 27 2022 14:19 utc | 65

Hidari@#1

Many are unaware of this fact, but the 3 Western WWII allies have never actually signed a peace treaty with any German government. The German surrender on 5-8-45 was done by Admiral Doenitz on behalf of the German armed forces. At that time Hitler government was no longer in existence.

Thus Germany is still an OCCUPIED NATION, under full control by the owners of the Empire of Lies. Will the bedizened and ever obedient German people grow a pair and overthrow the current Berlin regime and replace it with honest nationalists?

Posted by: aristodemos | Sep 27 2022 14:20 utc | 66

In times of peace this would be a declaration of war. Unfortunately the Germans don't know, who has declared war on them.

Posted by: Linus | Sep 27 2022 14:20 utc | 67

If you want to really understand the nature of #Western values, just watch any of the _Godfather_ movies.

The vaunted Western alliance system in reality is like mafia gang. Now, one member of the mafia gang, America, has tried to whack another member of this gang, Germany/Europe.

There is no honor among thieves--nor between Euro-American gangstas.

Sorry, Germany, nothing personal.

It's just bizness.

Posted by: ak74 | Sep 27 2022 14:20 utc | 68

@ Posted by: bevin | Sep 27 2022 14:10 utc | 64

Looking forward to micro-nationalists in the Baltics and East Europe tearing each other apart. The just desserts for 1989-1991. In the coming years we'll view neoliberal "heroes" like Vaclav Pavel as the people who sowed the seeds of nationalist revanchism and brought about the end of peace in Europe.

Posted by: fnord | Sep 27 2022 14:21 utc | 69

CIA Trojan Causes Siberian Gas Pipeline Explosion
https://www.risidata.com/Database/Detail/cia-trojan-causes-siberian-gas-pipeline-explosion

Then there are climate fighters...
How to Blow Up a Pipeline

How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire is a nonfiction book written by Andreas Malm and published in 2021 by Verso Books. In the book, Malm argues that sabotage is a logical form of climate activism, and criticizes both pacifism within the climate movement and "climate fatalism" outside it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Blow_Up_a_Pipeline

Earlier this month: Greenpeace activists block unloading of Russian gas in Sweden
https://english.alarabiya.net/business/energy/2022/09/08/Greenpeace-activists-block-unloading-of-Russian-gas-in-Sweden

Posted by: Zanon | Sep 27 2022 14:22 utc | 70

Before I forget:
Timed or remotely activated charges? Weeks/days?

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Sep 27 2022 14:25 utc | 71

Forgot my last link

Submarines and trawlers: Nord Stream 2 director spots something fishy in the Baltic (from 2021)

Andrey Minin, a director of a Nord Stream 2 regional subsidiary in north-west Russia, told Moscow news wire Interfax that Russian supporting vessels had fended off attacks on operations at the Gazprom-led project from an unidentified submarine and a Polish fishing trawler.

https://www.upstreamonline.com/politics/submarines-and-trawlers-nord-stream-2-director-spots-something-fishy-in-the-baltic/2-1-990876

Posted by: Zanon | Sep 27 2022 14:25 utc | 72

... The US has long distance (originally) Norwegian underwater drones that might suit the job if modified with other designs. ....

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Sep 27 2022 14:02 utc | 56

Agreed, good suggestion. I assume you’re referring to the REMUS underwater drones, some of which were donated to Ukraine by UK for “demining” operations but I suspected they would be used to attack RF naval assets:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/REMUS_(AUV)

https://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php/naval-news/naval-news-archive/2022/august/12124-united-kingdom-gives-six-underwater-drones-to-ukraine-to-hunt-mines.html

These REMUS drones appear to be an excellent fit with a shallow pipeline sabotage mission.

Posted by: anon2020 | Sep 27 2022 14:26 utc | 73

Vicky said: “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”

Posted by: rk | Sep 27 2022 14:27 utc | 74

Vs: "Jack"@17

Perhaps a bit over a year ago, when I was regularly posting on Unz, there was this Jack character who kept posting shit. Though, I could have taken the easy route and denounced him as "Jack Shit", my response at the time was "off, Jack, off".

One occasionally reads about excellent real estate deals. Latest along those lines is a nice Norwegian condo located in the exclusive community of Trollheim.

Posted by: aristodemos | Sep 27 2022 14:29 utc | 75

Russia knows very well who sabotaged those pipelines --- there is only three countries in the world that can do this.... and Russia's not in the habit of destroying it's own property.

UKRAPistan had nothing at all to do with this.

That leaves fahclst amerika and it's british stooges --- they are the only other countries capable of doing this.

That said, Russia needs to respond in kind --- it knows very well who was the perpetrator ---- it should respond by destroying the trans-atlantic fibre-optic cables that carry all internet communications between fahclst amerikan and the EU. Give the fahclsts a taste of their own medicine.

Russia has the capability of doing so, so it should......just like fahclst amerika just did.

Posted by: Karl | Sep 27 2022 14:29 utc | 76

The Baltic Pipe between Norway and Poland is in full operation since yesterday. On the same day NS2 and NS1 goes destroyed! What a coincidence!
Posted by: Wolle | Sep 27 2022 14:19 utc | 66

My thoughts exactly! However, that pipe is tiny and last time I heard news about it, a few months ago, they had problems finding gas for it. Now it'll be even harder, prices even higher.

Posted by: rk | Sep 27 2022 14:32 utc | 77



Geography, and the shallow depth of the Baltic Sea, seem to exclude that a U.S. or British submarines did the damage.

No. Nothing excludes U.S minions from helping to get American submarines where they need to be.

Also, the Americans have had submarines capable of this kind of operation for years:


Not just any submarine could be sent deep underwater to tap a cable however, a special sub was needed. The nuclear-powered USS Halibut was chosen for the tapping mission. Originally diesel-powered, Halibut had been converted to nuclear power and repurposed for special operations missions. To better serve as a special operations-capable sub Halibut underwent several modifications to support Navy divers. Special skids were installed to allow the sub to sit on the ocean floor, anchors were placed along the hull to keep the sub in place, a diving chamber mated to the deck to allow divers access to the outside, as well as an array of photographic and robotic equipment.

Though the Americans knew the Kamchatka-Vladivostok cable existed, they did not know exactly where. Looking for a slender cable on the seafloor would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack, and dangerous. The cables were allegedly found thanks to the signs posted on the shore where the cables left the sea, warning fishermen and boaters not to drop their anchors or nets in the areas indicated by the cables to prevent them from fouling.

National Disinterest

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 27 2022 14:37 utc | 78

In case anyone has forgotten, from (US)ABC News on Feb. 7th:

Biden, German chancellor present united front amid tensions with Russia over Ukraine
Biden said if Russia invaded Ukraine that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline "will end."

BySarah Kolinovsky, Molly Nagle, and Justin Gomez
February 7, 2022, 3:46 PM

"While the Biden administration has warned for weeks that Russia will face "severe" consequences if it invades Ukraine, Germany had often opted for a softer response, refusing to send military equipment to Ukraine or deploy more troops to the eastern flank. Germany had also shown reluctance to shut down Nord Stream 2, a Russian natural gas pipeline, not yet operational, that would carry gas directly to Germany, bypassing Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Biden has been rallying European allies to respond to Russia's threats in lockstep with his more aggressive plan. But meeting with Scholz Monday, the two world leaders expressed unity with their posture towards Russia.

After both leaders appeared to avoid mentioning the pipeline, under repeated questions from reporters at an afternoon press conference, Biden, standing next to the German chancellor said Nord Stream 2 would not move forward if Russia invades Ukraine, in a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin of potential economic consequences.

"If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the -- the border of Ukraine again, then there will be -- there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2," Biden said during the press conference with Scholz, who did not go as far as Biden, but insisted the U.S. and Germany remain "absolutely united."

PHOTO: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden arrive for a press conference at the White House, Feb. 7, 2022.

Pressed on how he can commit to that given that Nord Stream 2 is under German control, Biden doubled down, saying, "We will -- I promise you -- we will be able to do it."

Scholz, in turn, expressed unity with the U.S. and said that Germany was preparing sanctions in case Putin decides to invade.

"As I already said, we are acting together," Scholz said at the press conference. "We are absolutely united and we will not take different steps. We will do the same steps and they will be very, very hard to Russia, and they should understand."


So it looks like nobody was ever on the side of the German people... except Russia?

Posted by: PavewayIV | Sep 27 2022 14:37 utc | 79

https://twitter.com/gribneau/status/1574697247232741378

February 7, 2022

Biden: "If Russia invades... then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring and end to it".

Reporter: "But how do you do that, exactly, sice ... The project is in Germany's control?"

Biden: "I promise you, we will be able to do that"

Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 27 2022 14:40 utc | 80

Energy security means no energy.
It’s becoming too obvius, though.

Several countries in Europe/Eastern Europe have both energy resources and infrastructure to produce electricity from these sources. Estonia, Poland, for example. Coal and oil shale.

France’s absolutely excellent nuclear energy system has been downgraded by years of neglect and privatization into different components. The yanks had their share, there too.

In the name of the “Green Deal” Estonia stopped producing energy form oil shale just recently. On top of that common energy bourse has been established, where price is defined by mysterious highest bidder – undefined as such.

When the SMO started, the sanctions were jumped with absolute ease.

All in all.

You deprive nations from their historical or native energy resources, you undermine their energy security.
You establish predatory markets with rampant speculation.
You make impossible the acquisition of cheapest known energy with excellent quality and delivery record.

Then, you claim yourself a saviour.

Evil is when in the name of loftiest principles – saving the planet, feeding the world, healing the sick – you torture your lesser brothers. That’s the only real measure – how did you treat those less fortunate than you.

***
They don’t want to hear it.


Posted by: js | Sep 27 2022 14:42 utc | 81

It's interesting that according to RT, Germany openly admits even Ukraine could be responsible:

In the first, Ukraine or “Ukraine-affiliated forces” could be behind the attack. The second option is that Russia did it as a “false flag,” to make Ukraine look bad and drive EU energy prices even higher.

https://www.rt.com/business/563580-nord-stream-suspected-attack/

Original in Tagesspiegel article German:

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/druckabfall-in-beiden-leitungen-gemeldet-nord-stream-pipelines-moglicherweise-durch-anschlage-beschadigt-8687140.html

There are many Ukrainian special forces training in Poland, so the whole 'no access to the Baltic' theory only goes so far.

One can also not rule out some rogue independent element acting out alone. Shallow waters, plenty of explosives on the black market, and lots of trained men fit for the job and with a grudge. I was diving below 20 meters on my first ever dive, no problem.. i checked the bathymetry maps, the area is classed as 60-80 Meters deep, well within reach of trained divers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_diving
https://www.bsac.com/training/technical-diving-courses/open-circuit-tech-courses/advanced-mixed-gas-diver-80m/#tab-1

It doesn't seem too much of a stretch that even a small team of the right people could pull this off.

Posted by: Et Tu | Sep 27 2022 14:45 utc | 82

Posted by: Lex | Sep 27 2022 13:53 utc | 49

That seems the most convincing explanation to me, concerning the turbine in Mülheim.

Posted by: Moses | Sep 27 2022 14:48 utc | 83

I seem to remember Denmark was the one that held up NS2 the most???
A well researched article analysing the UK v Russia at the moment.

https://declassifieduk.org/explainer-britains-proxy-war-on-russia/

Posted by: Jo | Sep 27 2022 14:48 utc | 84

If the German people are not waking up to the fact that they are about to be genocided, then God help them!

Posted by: Ric G | Sep 27 2022 14:48 utc | 85

grits @ 52

I read every post as far as yours to see if any would make the point. You are completely correct.

The damage is massive. At the surface the gas "leak" is hundreds of meters across. Corresponds to massive amounts of saltwater inside what used to be pipelines. Were repairs ever contemplated it would be next year and just no purpose unless the current West regime had been locked in dustbin of history.

This is permanent.

Posted by: oldhippie | Sep 27 2022 14:49 utc | 86

@Chevrus 3

Im living in Germany, near a large NRW city with active barracks in the area; no soldiers patrolling here.

JB

Posted by: Judge Barbier | Sep 27 2022 14:50 utc | 87

I’m really, really deeply scared about NATO's inability to detect Russian submarine sabotage vehicles. Nobody saw them; nobody chased them away from Denmark. Complete failure. If it was a Посейдон (unmanned torpedo, 1.5-2 m in diameter, 20-25 m long, 10,000 km reach, NATO codename Kanyon), it could have delivered a 100 megaton blast. So, this Russian test balloon near Bornholm tells us that there is no protection whatsoever. 100 megatons after surfacing, say in the mouth of the Elbe, Thames or East River, will pulverize, then sinter everything within several hundred square kilometers and make them inhabitable. – For my own mental sanity, I prefer again to not believe the Empire of Lies and assume that the story is a completely different one.

Posted by: OttoE | Sep 27 2022 14:51 utc | 88

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Can't have Germany, under pressure from its citizens reverse its decision on NS1 or 2. This has America's fingerprints all over it. There's is no level too low for them to stoop to. The screaming and kicking and flailing around on the floor like a child everytime one of their moves is countered is awesome to see. The more they lose, the louder the screaming will get. Music to my ears. Keep digging that hole deeper you morons.

Posted by: Watzov | Sep 27 2022 14:51 utc | 89


Novaya Gazeta cites from a Tagesspiegel article (which is behind a paywall):

The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, where gas leaks were reported on 26 September, may have been damaged in a deliberate attack, German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reports, citing a source familiar with the investigation.

“At this point, we cannot imagine any other scenario except a planned attack. Everything points to the fact that it is not a coincidence,” the newspaper’s source said.

According to Der Tagesspiegel, the pipelines may have been damaged by divers or attacked from a submarine. The investigation is considering two versions of what happened: one version says Ukraine or pro-Ukrainian forces are behind the attack, while the other one suggests that Russia may have been involved in the incident, the newspaper notes.

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2022/09/27/der-tagesspiegel-damaged-nord-stream-pipelines-may-have-been-attacked-from-submarine-news

I find this interesting because the source easily could have omitted the highlighted sentences. It will not be easy to sell the crude "The Russians did it" version to the German population, so this might be the line the government will follow (similar to the NPP Zaporozhje).

Whoever did this, it was a very risky move with the potential to turn the tables in Germany, although not immediately.


Posted by: mk | Sep 27 2022 14:53 utc | 90

TEAM_Murica, POL+Baltics, Zelenskyy, and German (Non-Enviromentalst) Fake-Greens wanted to End the NordStreams. Even GreenPeace were sabotaging RUS LNG Offloading in SWE+FIN. Looks like the NordStreams are Deep-Sixed for Good ⚰️.

Don't think RUS would ever get involved with another Pipeline across the Baltic Sea - ₽UB better spent on Asia-bound Pipelines. Guess Herr Bundeskanzler+Staff are into Self-Flagellation, Auto-Asphyxiation, Ritual Humiliation, and Epic Fail-Stating.

These pretty much postpone DEU Hydrogen based Infrastructure Projects INDEFINITELY - since the Hydrogen were due to be pumped in through NordStream02. LNG are too expensive as they are - Steam-fracking LNG for H2 may be out of reach.

This is one issue that debunk the DEU Green Party.

Looks like Die Deutschen will have to import as much Crude (Payable in PetroU$D) and Coal from Europe, Americas, and AUS.

*****

RUS aren't too troubled. NS1 and NS2 weren't in Operation at the Present; and Sanctions were expected to keep them suppressed. RUS just signed more agreements with CHN regarding PowerOfSiberia02 - which connect the Yamal Fields to CHN+AsiaPacific. At an Annual 50Bm³ of NatGas - possibly with Hydrogen mixed in - PwrSibr02 could be compared as the "Chinese Version" of NordStream02 - the Version that actually works.

We may see more NatGas+Crude Pipelines built towards CHN and Vladivostok. IIRC, RUS are using a PRK WarmWater Port - should they manage to build a LNG Terminal there, Asia will be secure.

Posted by: IronForge | Sep 27 2022 15:01 utc | 91

Bevin at 64:

That was a good post, learned something from it:
" What is Kwasi Kwarteng really up to?"

I am not a racist, but name Kwasi Kwarteng does not sound right for the minister of finance or something like that. Those lords sitting in the Parliament, they all have Anglo-sounding names. No-one has a son or daughter or themselves to serve in important positions of the government?

Posted by: zidar | Sep 27 2022 15:07 utc | 92

Won't anyone think of the HERRING!?!

Now when I order my pickled herring the waiter will have to ask 'flat or sparkling?'

Posted by: kons | Sep 27 2022 15:08 utc | 93

When are the German public going to realize they are at war. At war with the Global deep financial Cabal, in league with US and British (plus surely German?) Intelligence, with various other on-the-side Industries, e.g. OilGas, MIC chasing any leftovers like slobbering pigs and that these are who control what the Americans/EU are doing to them.

Baerbock Habeck and Scholtz are slavishly and gleefully doing this to you right in front of your eyes!

What are they going to do about it ?!? So far, roll over and ask please, can I have some more A$$ Fk^(king?

Next, will they will invite far Right sector Ukrainians in to finish Grmany off and we will be back in the 30s

Posted by: intp1 | Sep 27 2022 15:19 utc | 94

PM Morawiecki: "I declare with absolute confidence that the period of Russian domination in the gas field, marked by extortion, threats and blackmail, is coming to an end. The Baltic pipeline means freedom from today. It will become a pipeline of independence, security and peace"

Gas jumped to $2060

Posted by: rk | Sep 27 2022 15:40 utc | 95

Gonzalo Lira just suggested it is the US, which is intent on destroying Europe.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Sep 27 2022 15:40 utc | 96

It is not likely that Putin did this, but it not implausible either. We don't yet know the extent or type of the damage, so repair work may or may not be costly and difficult. Regardless, Putin may have surmised the NS2 was not going to be used in the near future anyway (due to US/WEF arm-twisting), so Gulf-of-Tonkin'ing it might at least earn the consolation prize of sympathy from non-aligned nations. More importantly, removing NS2 as an emergency/compromise option would make existing overland pipelines even more critical to Western Europe--which ironically is the entire reason the US is facilitating this idiotic War of the Potato-faced Slavs. Because Western Europe doesn't really hate Russia, certainly not with as much conviction as do Ukraine and Poland. But now these two stovepipes are not merely NATO toadies--they're literal belligerents; and they're not just upcharging for transit-- they're outright blocking it. This winter, Poland and Ukraine will start looking less like "allies" and more like enemies of the soon-to-be-freezing-to-death West. Of course, all of this is contingent on how much of the world supply of energy can be rerouted to Europe by this winter. For example, Russia still can sell energy to China, which then sails it back to Europe for a huge upcharge. That surely is far too expensive and slow to accommodate winter demand. If the dire winter scenario unfolds, though, then I fully expect the US Puppeteers to order Brandon to ration domestic energy to "save" Europe. And if we get that far, then one or more large factions of American Sheeple will demand WWIII or a Revolution, or maybe both. 95% of Americans--right or left--will scratch the eyes out of anything that upsets their bourgeois bliss!

Posted by: Tom SteChatte | Sep 27 2022 15:41 utc | 97

Lets see if the idiots that perpetrated this act can keep a secret.

Posted by: too scents | Sep 27 2022 15:43 utc | 98

Posted by: zidar | Sep 27 2022 15:07 utc | 94


Kwasi Kwarteng does not sound right for the minister of finance ... No-one has a son or daughter or themselves to serve in important positions of the government?

Biden, Kwarteng, Truss, Scholtz, Bareback, Von der leyen are exactly the kind of sacrificial lambs you want in important positions of government when the whole house of cards is about to come down.

Would you want your elite family name tainted by having your sons and daughters on the throne when the SHTF ?

The old and senile, the slave boy, women and fools - all the traditional sin goats of society's masters.

Nobody is there by accident. Not a one.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 27 2022 15:45 utc | 99

Assuming one can somehow get around the sanctions issue, fixing it is technically going to be hard enough.
But how do you prevent the bad actor from repeating this?

Posted by: grits | Sep 27 2022 13:56 utc | 52

Who would fix it? Russia would, as they are the only ones having the experience and the equipment.
But why would Russia even try? After all, Germany refuses to open NS2, and NS1 was already out of order due to the sanctions.
Why waste time and energy on something that the other side (that is, Germany) insists it doesn't want? Germany would now have to ask for it - and German leadership doesn't have the balls.

You can't prevent the bad actor from repeating this - this is payback for the defeat in Ukraine that EU, UK and US cannot prevent.
And a warning to the rest of the world what they can - and will - do to them.

While I don't discount the Polish, I'm quite sure that US is the instigator - their pipelines run where they assume no one can touch them. And any environmental pollution caused by their sabotage will not reach their shores.

Posted by: Martina | Sep 27 2022 15:45 utc | 100

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