It is still one of the most successful industrial sabotages from recent years. For a long time, different parties were suspected, from Russia, through the United States to Ukraine.
But finally, it turned out that the Nord Stream pipeline, through which Russian gas had been flowing into Europe until then, was thrown into the air only a few determined Ukrainians. The whole operation, which apparently took place despite the resistance of the President Volodymyr Greenland, cost only “only” $ 300,000, which is a scarce fraction of the economic damage caused by Russia, but ultimately Germany.
“I always laugh when I read media speculation about a huge operation involving secret services, submarines, unmanned aircraft and satellites,” said one of the officers who participated in the event in 2022. “The whole thing was born from a night full of alcohol and iron determination of a handful of people who had the courage to risk their lives for their country.”
Since then, four pipes are belonging to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream pipelines. But this may change soon.
This was admitted by some German politicians belonging to the winning CDU/CSU coalition to be part of the new government in Berlin next month. The re-riding of the German-Russian pipeline is also supported by the pro-Russian far-right alternative for Germany (AfD). German politicians who have long refused to cut off the supply of Russian gas and oil, thus not only angry with their own but also Ukrainians.
What did the attack on Nord Stream look like:
The Russians and Americans also discussed the Nord Stream’s repair
Nord Stream was also discussed on possible correction and re -conjunction of US President Donald Trump’s administration with Kremlin.
Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed it. According to him, Washington and Russia’s negotiations also included a discussion on the renewal of the Nord Stream pipeline. He responded to the reports of the German daily Handelsblatt, who informed that the US investor asked the US government to buy a pipeline.
“There is talk of Nord Stream,” Lavrov told the Russian state -controlled television station “It will probably be interesting if the Americans will use their influence on Europe and force it not to refuse Russian gas.”
Bundestag deputy for CDU Thomas Bareiss welcomed this idea in a long post on the Linkedin network, noting “what our American friends are doing business”.
“When peace and weapons are restored between Russia and Ukraine (and hopefully it will happen soon), relationships are normalized, the embargo is sooner or later abolished and, of course, the gas can flow again, this time may be under the control of the US,” he wrote.
It is the CDU that is supposed to form a new government in Berlin in April after the party won the election a few months ago.
SPD Nord Stream defended. Now is against
Nord Stream consists of two pipelines, each with two pipes. As the graphics show above, it leads from northwest Russia to the northeastern coast of Germany. While Nord Stream 2, completed in 2021, was never put into operation, Nord Stream 1 was open in 2011 and supplied Russian gas to Europe through a company that co -owned a consortium involving Russian Gazprom and various German, French and Dutch companies.
Nord Stream 1 Russia shut down on September 1, 2022, under the pretext that the European Union sanctions were technically impossible for its operation.
A few weeks later, three of the four Nord Stream pipelines were destroyed after the aforementioned sabotage of a small group of Ukrainians. Although the sabotters have not yet been definitively identified, the German authorities issued a warrant for a suspicious Ukrainian last year, which is still free.
Former Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who is described as a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is still nominal head of the Nord Stream Board of Directors. In the months of the following after the full invasion of Russia on Ukraine in February 2022, the SPD came under a sharp attack by the CDU for its old Russian ties and the key role it played in negotiations on the Nord Stream agreement.
In 2022, Merz, the then opposition leader and the future German Chancellor, told Deutschlandfunk’s radio network that Germany’s energy dependence on Russia must be terminated immediately, and demanded a parliamentary investigation into SPD links to Russia: indicated such an investigation “probably revealing that we are getting deeper than today.”
Nord Stream fails. The US may buy it cheaply
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the SPD was even forced to admit his guilt as a foreign minister under the leadership of Angela Merkel: “My commitment to Nord Stream 2 was clearly a mistake,” the head of state said in 2022.
Nord Stream, based in Switzerland, is currently in bankruptcy proceedings, which means that the gas pipeline is potential for selling at a low price.
In 2021, Russia supplied approximately 45 percent of natural gas imported to the European Union. The United States was the main opponent of the Nord Stream pipeline. Former US President Donald Trump said in 2019 that Nord Stream 2 could make Europe a “hostage of Russia”, and imposed sanctions on all companies that help Russia with the completion of the pipeline.
