The Nord Stream pipeline explosions: challenging false narratives

An important post from Simon Pirani at People and Nature (also at the US New Politics website):

People and Nature

By Simon Pirani

The claim that the Nord Stream gas pipeline was blown up by US special forces, made last week by the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, is being used to reinforce false narratives about Russia’s culpability for the war in Ukraine.

Methane leaking from the Nord Stream pipelines on 29 September last year, from a satellite. Photo from European Space Agency

On 26 September last year, explosions damaged three of Nord Stream’s four pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, and sent a large cloud of methane into the atmosphere. Russia has blamed the US; western media suspected Russia itself of sabotage.

Russian gas had been carried to Germany through the first pair of pipelines, Nord Stream 1, from 2012 until three weeks before the explosions.

Construction of the second pair of pipelines, Nord Stream 2, was completed in 2021, but authorisation to use them…

View original post 2,790 more words