(Washington Insider Magazine)-Wild speculation on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian war is well underway at the suspicious timing of two significant underwater events in the Baltic Sea on Monday.
Teams from the Swedish National Seismic Network reported the detection of two separate underwater explosions, seventeen hours apart, in the depths of the Baltic Sea. Oddly, Nord Stream gas pipelines 1 and 2, coincidentally located in the same area as the explosions, have sprung a total of three catastrophic leaks.
The visually evident leaks have caused over one kilometer of continuous bubbling methane gas activity at the surface of the sea. This unprecedented catastrophe could potentially cause untold harm to the Baltic Sealife as well as to the earth’s atmosphere. As for the economic impact on Germany or neighboring European countries that rely on the pipelines to supply their energy needs, no tangible effect has occurred due to other factors that have been in play for months prior to this event.
In August 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin had already suspended the gas supply from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in response to Western sanctions imposed on Russia for invading the country of Ukraine in February. And the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has yet to be utilized for commercial use. Authorities have been scrambling in the preceding months of this week’s events to resolve the energy crisis that is looming over Europe as winter approaches.
Linking the explosions and gas pipeline leaks to each other, theories of sabotage are running amuck as countries point fingers at one another. Russia is accusing the US and Ukraine of sabotaging the pipelines while Ukraine, Poland, and others are accusing Russia of the same.
The Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, is hard-pressed to believe that the explosions and subsequent gas leaks were accidental.
US Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has expressed that the White House will not be speculating on the cause of the explosions and leaks but is prepared to support the efforts of their European partners after their investigations have been completed.
The importance of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline cannot be overstated. Since 2011, when it was established as the largest gas pipeline between Russia and western Europe, it has been providing up to 40% of the European Union’s supply demands from Russia.
