Why in the Hell are these people thinking that they can blame Putin for all the sabotage? It’s like they think he’s Barney Fife. Did he shoot his own foot on purpose? There is no f ing way Putin would make holes in his pipeline.
Russia is too weak economically to dominate that way. Russia is too weak militarily to defeat Ukraine or NATO. Russia has used hybrid war the last 8 years in Ukraine. Why take insignia off soldiers and deny they are your soldiers? Russia did. Putin is Bolshevik liar. Born and bred KGB. Legitimizing hybrid warfare on infrastructure is clearly a reason to “make holes in his pipeline.”
When I look at the number of high level Russians dying in mysterious “accidents”, I think it’s quite obvious there are power struggles in the Tsar’s “court” that make anything we see here in the USA (yes, including the Clinton family stuff) look like kindergarten antics.
Now, unless its typical Russian “stir the pot” agitprop to get NATO members in conflict with each other, or, legitimizing hybrid warfare on infrastructure as you say... Though the Nordstream pipelines are kinda moot anyway, at least for a good while, my guess is Pooty probably would not bother popping the Nordstream pipelines. Some sort of concession regarding them could be a part of eventual negotiations.
However, a group at Gazprom might well be really PO’d at Pooty & his pals: The Gazprom execs were all set for an incredibly lucrative gas business with Europe for a long time. I could see them sending a pig down the pipelines to blow ‘em and then make it look like their new internal enemies did it. Spite can result in some pretty crazy stuff.