Free Republic

Until it decided to confront Moscow with an existential military threat in Ukraine, Washington confined the use of American military power to conflicts that Americans could afford to lose, wars with weak opponents in the developing world from Saigon to Baghdad that did not present an existential threat to U.S. forces or American territory. This time—a proxy war with Russia—is different.

The operator of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, Nord Stream AG, announced Wednesday that, after an initial inspection, it has found man-made craters in the seabed near a pipeline damaged by the September explosions. "Technogenic craters with a depth of 3 to 5 meters were found on the seabed at a distance of about 248 meters from each other. The section of the pipeline between the craters is destroyed and the dispersion radius of the pipeline fragments is at least 250 meters," the company detailed in a statement.

Moscow will "in the near future" summon the British ambassador to hand over "evidence" of its claim that the U.K. helped orchestrate an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. Russia has claimed U.K. "specialists" helped Kyiv launch a drone attack on the fleet in Moscow-annexed Crimea at the weekend. Russia has also accused London of being behind the September explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Russian authorities have so far provided no proof to back up their claims. "The U.K. ambassador will be summoned and will be given the appropriate materials,"...

Now Moscow claims that Britain's ROYAL NAVY blew up Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines as Ministry of Defence says 'invented' slur 'says more about arguments going on inside Russia's government' Russian defence ministry said UK's Navy helped plan and implement the 'attack' Also claimed the same troops were responsible for a drone attack this morning British Ministry of Defence said Moscow has 'resorted to peddling false claims' Nord Stream pipes exploded last month, leading to four gas leaks in Baltic Sea Russia's army has accused the British Navy of being 'involved' in explosions on the Nord Stream gas...

LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - With the mystery of the blasts that destroyed undersea gas pipelines between Russia and Germany unsolved, Nord Stream 1's insurers and reinsurers are grappling with how to respond to hundreds of millions of dollars in potential claims. Munich Re (MUVGn.DE) and syndicates within the Lloyd's of London market are among the major underwriters for Nord Stream 1, four industry sources with knowledge of the situation said…. …While a claim has not yet been made for the damage and disruption to the pipeline, two of the sources told Reuters, Nord Stream 1's underwriters may dispute any...

Norwegian officials warned Thursday that there could be more arrests after at least seven Russians — including the son of a close associate of President Vladimir Putin — were detained in recent weeks for flying drones or taking pictures near sensitive areas, prompting an investigation by the domestic intelligence service. Norway and other countries are moving to secure critical infrastructure in the wake of the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines. Since then, drone sightings have been reported in Norway’s vast offshore oil and gas fields and at Norwegian airports. On Wednesday, Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store,...

Why are the Swedes busy hiding the results of their investigation of the bombing of the Nordstream 2 pipeline which they have completed? The Dementia Joe Mafia Crime Family and Gestapo FBI putting pressure on Sweden not to release the results of the investigation and protect Dementia Joe and the Dems before the November elections? Probably.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser dismissed Arne Schoenbohm as head of the BSI agency, following reports which "damaged the necessary confidence of the public in the neutrality and impartiality" of his management, the ministry said on Tuesday.... The Cyber Security Council Germany, which Mr Schoenbohm chaired until he became the head of the BSI in 2016, was prone to influence from Russian companies and even the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies, the report said. German media have reported that one of its members was a German company that is a subsidiary of a Russian cybersecurity firm founded by a former KGB agent, which...

SOUTHERN BALTIC SEA. The explosions that have escalated the geopolitical conflict between Russia and the West took place here. At the bottom, 80 meters below the surface of the Baltic Sea, Expressen films the ruptured gas pipelines in Nord Stream 1. Our underwater camera documents long tears in the seabed before it reaches the concrete-reinforced steel pipe torn apart in the suspected sabotage. At least fifty meters of the gas line appears to be missing after the explosion, which measured 2.3 on the Richter scale. Last Friday, the Coast Guard announced that the bubbles above the Nord Stream pipes were...

Contrary to plans, Sweden, Denmark and Germany will not form a joint investigation team to investigate the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines. According to SPIEGEL information, Sweden has rejected the establishment of an international Joint Investigation Team (JIT). According to information from security circles, Sweden is said to have justified the refusal by saying that the security classification of its investigation results was too high to share them with other countries. Shortly after the sabotage operation at the end of September, the federal government decided that German investigators should take part in the investigation. Federal police and army sent...

Ten days after the explosions targeting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, which occurred on September 26 in the Danish and Swedish exclusive economic zones in the Baltic Sea, the investigation is slowly moving forward. Conducted with civilian and military resources by Denmark, Sweden and Germany as part of a joint team, it promises to be both technically delicate and subject to strong pressure, so much so that this alleged sabotage has rekindled concerns about the control of the seabed in several European countries. On Thursday, October 6, the Swedish security service (Säpo) issued a statement saying that...

Germany fears an increase in attacks on infrastructure and possible sabotage. General Carsten Breyer, the commander of the territorial command of the Bundeswehr, warned about such risks for the country in an interview with Bild am Sonntag. “We are in command, first of all, we are ready for hybrid threats. This is a state between not quite peace, but not war either,” he said. The general noted that after the cases of drone flights over barracks and military facilities, as well as explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Germany’s defense forces have increased their readiness for possible new attacks....

The twists and turns of the Nord Stream 2 (NS2) saga have yielded yet another stunning game-changer. It started with Gazprom revealing that the Line B string of NS2 is intact; not only it escaped Pipeline Terror but may “potentially” be used to pump gas to Germany. That confirms once again that NS2 is an engineering marvel. In fact the whole system: the pipes are so strong they were not broken, but merely punctured. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak followed up, with a caveat: restoration of the whole system, including NS, is possible, and “requires time and…funds”.…. … Subsequently...

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the West was purposefully creating obstacles to the investigation and said the exclusion of Russia and Gazprom from the probe showed it had something to hide.

The Swedish Security Service’s crime scene investigation of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines has now been completed. The investigation has strengthened the suspicions of gross sabotage. The Security Service carried out the crime scene investigation, beginning this past weekend, with excellent support and cooperation from the Swedish Coast Guard, Armed Forces and Police Authority. The crime scene investigation has shown that there have been detonations near Nord Stream 1 and 2, within the Swedish economic zone, resulting in extensive damage to the gas pipelines. Certain seizures were made during the on-site investigation. The Swedish Security Service is...

Stockholm: An inspection of two of the leaks at the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe has reinforced suspicions that they were acts of sabotage, Swedish authorities said Thursday. "We can conclude that there have been detonations at Nord Stream 1 and 2 in the Swedish exclusive economic zone that has led to extensive damage to the gas pipelines," public prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said in a statement Mr Ljungqvist added that the "crime scene investigation had strengthened the suspicions of aggravated sabotage." "Pieces of evidence have been gathered at the crime scene and these will now be examined,"...

Amid growing fears that Russia could resort to nuclear warfare in Ukraine, Poland has requested to share US atomic weapons. White House officials told The Guardian that they were 'not aware of the issue being raised' while experts have widely suggested that the gesture was purely symbolic. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) largest member from the former Warsaw Pact, has been the most vocal in bolstering the alliance's eastern flank. 'The problem, first of all, is that we don't have nuclear weapons,' Polish president Andrzej Duda said in an interview with the Gazeta Polska newspaper. 'There is always a...

While international experts try to figure out what caused the ruptures in the Nord Stream pipeline, engineers have multiple options to try and fix it… … Pipelines must resist many threats. The massive anchors of large container ships or tankers in particular can damage the pipes—as happened in 2008 with the Kvitebjørn pipeline in the North Sea off the Norwegian coast.… … Nord Stream’s more than 1,000 kilometers of pipelines. The structures lie directly on the seabed or, where it is not stable or level enough, on a bed of gravel. They are only laid under the ground where they...

Moscow said Wednesday it should be part of the probe into leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, after Sweden blocked off the area around the pipelines pending an investigation."There should really be an investigation. Naturally, with the participation of Russia," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said, as quoted by Russian news agencies..... Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said such a probe "required the cooperation of several countries."He denounced an "acute shortage of communications and unwillingness of many countries to contact" Russia.....

I read Jazz Shaw’s story this morning about Jeffrey Sachs saying it’s likely the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. That’s the line being taken by Tucker Carlson as well. And while I agree there’s no definitive proof either way, at least not anything that has been declassified yet, I think it’s still probable that Russia is responsible.Russia had already cut off the supply of gas through Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 was never operational. So there was no real change in the amount of gas going through the pipeline (or the revenue it produced) before or...