Very interesting article. Thanks for posting. The author makes a good argument. He says that the pipelines most likely failed due to simple incompetence on the part of Russian maintenance crews.
Very possible. But not very exciting. Stories of SEALS and submarines are far more captivating.
Well there you go. When you have a plentiful supply of something you find all sorts of ways to use it. Russia has a lot of incompetence! Some general probably decided to put it to good use, with the end goal being Putin's retirement.
Before you overthrow an autocracy you have to do some destabilization.