Experts aren’t sure if it was an accident, because the explosions were so strong they were even recorded on the Richter scale of seismic movements.
Who blew up the North Current gas pipelines? Any private investigator would start by figuring out who would benefit most from the sabotage of Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, designed to supply Russian gas to 52 million European homes, or a quarter of the EU’s needs. What the experts are clear about is that it wasn’t an accident, because the explosions in both, many miles away, were so strong that they recorded seismic movements even on the Richter scale. And that’s exactly where Russia and the US got involved yesterday, at the UN Security Council meeting in New York to clear it up.
“The explosions are the latest episode in a protracted geopolitical showdown between the US and Russia, where energy and infrastructure have become the focus and turned into weapons,” concluded Marc-Antoine Eyl Mazzega, director of the Center for Energy and Climate at the United Nations. Ilfri French Institute of International Relations.
None of the three gas pipelines were operational at the time of the explosions recorded last Monday, but they contain 800 million cubic meters of natural gas that has escaped to the surface through four leaks. They also lost the little hope there was of getting the European energy market under control this winter.
Russia, whose state-owned company Gazprom built the facilities under the Baltic Sea with its European partners to bypass Ukraine, accuses the US of blowing them up “because sanctions weren’t enough,” snapped Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. His US counterpart “categorically” denied it. What exactly would they gain by trying to help European allies get rid of Russian oil? Quite simply: “American liquefied gas companies should rub their hands,” Nebenzia complained. It is possible, but contrary to what is happening with Gazprom, the first private company Valdimir Putin set his eyes on to nationalize 50% and leave the other half in the hands of his oligarchs, in the cradle of capitalism the interests of the major energy companies do not always coincide with those in Washington.
“In fact, Europe has been indefinitely deprived of an important route for transporting a crucial energy source,” the Russian ambassador lamented, before recalling that Russia and Gazprom had invested “enormous amounts of money and effort” in its construction because it the way is shorter and safer way to get russian gas to european consumers. “Should we expect them to say that after we masochistically bombed the nuclear power plant we were in, we have now detonated our own gas pipelines?” he asked dryly. “It is clear that an act of sabotage of this complexity and magnitude is far beyond the capacity of ordinary terrorists,” he concluded.
The answer from who blew up Nord Stream has not been answered, as damage cannot even be assessed until all the gas that could explode if divers are sent to the depths of the Baltic Sea comes out. What is known is that it will further destabilize the European energy market, accelerate the search for alternative energy sources and cause serious environmental damage to the Baltic Sea, as confirmed by Denmark and Sweden in their letters of concern to the Security Council. Worse, Navid Hanif, assistant to the UN Secretary-General for Economic Development, warned: Discharging hundreds of millions of cubic meters of gas into the atmosphere could lead to thousands of tons of methane emissions in the coming years. equal to 80 times the planet-warming force of carbon dioxide, and about 30 times more than a hundred years. An even more disturbing unknown than the identities of the saboteurs, as it is not yet possible to estimate how much methane will escape into the atmosphere.
Source: La Verdad
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