Four large leaks were detected on September 26, 2022 in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, through which Russia supplied cheap gas to Germany, near the Danish island of Bornholm.
The operator Nord Stream 1 reported that the submarine lines had suffered “simultaneously unprecedented damage” and, a few hours later, the Swedish National Center for Seismology found that “there is no doubt that they were explosions.” It was not until mid-November that the Swedish authorities communicated the result of their investigation in international waters, whose conclusion was that “the analyzes carried out found traces of explosives in several objects recovered in the area and there is no doubt that they were acts of sabotage, according to the prosecutor Mats Ljungquist, who, however, could not give any clue about the authorship.
It is undoubtedly an act of war linked to the situation generated by the invasion of Ukraine, but the case has not been resolved and international public opinion still does not know who blew up the gas pipelines, hence the information published by the investigative journalist US Seymour Hersh acquires special relevance.
Seymour Hersh, a former Pulitzer Prize winner, claims to have discovered that the United States, with the support of Norway, was responsible for the destruction of the Nord Stream infrastructure.
Both the White House and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs speak of an “invention”. “This is completely false and a complete fabrication”, has judged the spokeswoman for the National Security Council of the United States, Adrienne Watson. A CIA spokesman also told the AFP agency that “This statement is completely and utterly false.” But Hersh stands by the results of his investigation: US Navy divers, with the collaboration of Norway, planted the explosives in the gas pipelines last June, in a covert operation ordered directly by the White House and planned by the CIA. The explosive devices were later detonated remotely, in September.
The reason, according to his version, is that President Joe Biden wanted to prevent Russia from continuing to earn billions from the export of natural gas. He was angry at Germany’s refusal to continue buying, despite the fact that Washington had imposed sanctions on all companies. who participated in the construction of Nord Stream 2, which was completed in September and never came into operation. Hersh claims that the United States also viewed the pipelines as a means for the Kremlin to exert pressure on Germany and Western Europe, which could weaken Western support for Ukraine. And that the idea to destroy the pipelines arose in December 2021.
Hersh, an 85-year-old legendary journalist, bases all his information on a single source whose identity he does not reveal. He has not published his findings in any major US outlet, but on his Substack account. He also presents as background the statements made by US President Joe Biden in February 2022, during a visit to Washington by Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz. Several weeks before the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Biden warned that if Russia invaded the neighboring country, “then there will be no more Nord Stream 2.” That “I promise”, he emphasized, without elaborating, “we will put an end to this”.
Hersh joins the article to the thesis formulated by Putin. “The US president must answer the question of whether the US has implemented its threat,” a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said after the blast. Just a few days ago, German Attorney General Peter Frank said in an interview that there is no evidence that Russia was behind the attack.
