Bucharest, January 8, 2024 – # rbj – Tons of ink were spent and millions of dollars were spent to find reliable traces of the terrible attack on the Nord Stream I and Nord Stream II gas pipelines, which supplied Germany and a good part from the EU with Russian gas. It was demonstrated that the dynamism of the German economy in the last three decades was supported by the supply of natural gas from the Russian Federation.
After the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, in February 2022, in the last week of September 2022, the specialized services from Russia and Germany found that the two gas highways under the Baltic Sea exploded.
History records this fact as one of the most daring acts of sabotage in this sector.
Judicial investigations from all neighboring countries (except Russia, which was not allowed to participate) have started investigations to identify those who participated in this unprecedented attack.
None of the three judicial investigations launched separately by Germany, Sweden and Denmark have been successful. Among all the hypotheses, one seems more feasible. Here is what the Swedish side announces:
“The main hypothesis is that a state is behind” this sabotage, Swedish prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist announced in April, adding that the authors knew “very well that they would leave traces”.
It’s just a point of view. Nothing could reveal the truth.
The investigations are not over. Today, the influential The Wall Street Journal headlines, in a correspondence from Berlin: “Nord Stream Probe Hampered by Resistance From Poland”. And it continues in the chapeau: “Investigators hope Warsaw’s new government will shed light on gas-pipelines attack after previous administration’s reluctance to disclose potentially crucial evidence”.
The relevant profile institutions in Poland avoided and continue to avoid cooperation with European investigators investigating the circumstances of sabotage at the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. Warsaw also tried to obstruct the investigation, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported.
The WSJ points out, citing investigative sources, that Polish authorities are “withdrawing from cooperation with the international investigation […] and refusing to provide potentially critical evidence” for the investigation into the pipeline explosions. Warsaw provides the requested data “too slowly” and refuses to share information about the movements of people suspected of involvement in sabotage on Polish territory. The persistence with which Warsaw tries to delay the investigation gives rise to “growing suspicions about the role and motives of the republic” in the pipeline bombing story, the publication writes.
Investigators have not yet been able to clearly establish whether the sabotage took place with the knowledge of Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s center-right government. However, any suspicion that Poland, a NATO country, is withholding information about an attack against its allies’ critical infrastructure could seriously undermine confidence in the alliance. At the same time, any actions of Warsaw that indirectly confirm its participation in organizing the destruction of gas pipelines can be considered by Moscow as an aggressive act on the part of NATO, the newspaper notes.
According to the publication’s sources, senior EU officials plan to ask Poland’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk, to cooperate with the sabotage investigation. It should be mentioned that after taking over the mandate, Tusk fired all the heads of the special services, including those involved in the investigation of the gas pipeline explosion. The EU thus hopes that Polish investigators will be willing to provide additional details regarding the gas pipeline explosions under the Baltic Sea.
About 7.4 billion euros were spent to build Nord Stream 1 and another 10 billion euros were spent to build Nord Stream 2, according to official information. The Russian Federation has agreed to spend exorbitant sums to bypass Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states.
Nord Stream 1, which stretches for 1,200 km, has been operating since 2011 and is the only one that has been used for gas trade.
Nord Stream 2 stretches for 1,230 km and its construction was completed in the autumn of 2021, but the certification process necessary for operationalization has been delayed by Germany, following criticism from NATO allies, especially the Baltic states, who are concerned that Moscow will use the new pipeline as a “geopolitical weapon”.
