Successful sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines is in Norway’s interests. This observation on Tuesday, February 14, shared with the newspaper Berliner Zeitung American journalist and investigative Seymour Hersh.
“Norway is a great seafaring nation and has deep sources of energy. It is also very interested in increasing natural gas supplies to Western Europe and Germany.<…> So why not join forces with the US for economic reasons? In addition, there is a noticeable hostility towards Russia in Norway,” he said.
According to the journalist, in order for everything to go as it should be for the parties concerned, it was necessary to prepare the ground in advance. He stressed that such an opportunity presented itself in the summer of 2022, during the regular military exercises of NATO Baltops. Then, for the first time in a long time, adjustments were made to the program and a 12-day exercise on working with mines was added. Under this cover, the divers could easily place explosive devices on the pipelines unnoticed.
Speaking about the involvement of other Scandinavian states – in particular, Sweden and Denmark – Hersh noted that they may have had more complete information about the upcoming sabotage, while remaining aloof directly from the organization of the explosions.
Also on that day, Hersh mentioned the participation of US President Joe Biden in the preparation and implementation of sabotage at Nord Stream. According to the journalist, the American leader gave the order to activate the bombs, because he feared that on the eve of winter, Germany would lift sanctions restricting the work of pipelines.
On February 8, Seymour Hersh published his own investigation, in which he indicated, citing sources, that US divers planted explosives under gas pipelines during alleged NATO exercises, and the Norwegians activated it. He also noted that the White House’s motives were to force the FRG to provide military and financial support to Ukraine.
Leaks at Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 were discovered in September 2022. The representative of the seismic center of Sweden, Bjorn Lund, said that two powerful underwater explosions were registered in the area of leaks in pipelines at the time of the emergency.
