Of course not…. Most likely was our Navy seals….
It just as well could have been Putin. A lot of Russian military vessels masquerading as civilian ones were documented in that exact area doing suspicious things.
Q: Why would Putin do it since it is obviously bad for Russia?
A: Putin cares about Putin and not about Russia. He might have feared for good reason an elite coup where the Europeans say “Just get rid of Putin and we turn the gas pipes back one ... we’ll put out a press release saying it was all Putin’s fault ... you will have your money train again.”
If Putin orders the pipe to be blown up then there can be no deals like that.