Wen Observer Network Zhang Jingjuan

After nearly three years, the "Nord Stream" pipeline explosion once again made headlines. Western media reported that Sergey Kuznetsov, a Ukrainian suspected of involvement in the explosion of the "Nord Stream" natural gas pipeline, was recently arrested in Italy and will be extradited to Germany.

The 49-year-old Ukrainian man, who was arrested during a holiday off the Adriatic coast, was found to be a European-seeked man when the police handled hotel or apartment accommodation registration information, after which he was arrested by Italian police.

In this regard, "Russia Today" (RT) questioned on the 24th, saying that this new development, far from being closer to the truth, has instead brought more question marks to the surface: At the beginning, the West insisted that "only state actors can do it", and also implied that Russia is the mastermind behind it. Why now instead promote "small team spontaneous action"? Is a 15-meter-long yacht supporting the operation? NATO's closely monitored waters can really allow a six-person team to come and go freely and complete deep-sea ammunition?

Russia has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, scheduled for August 26, Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the UN, said on August 22, according to reports. Mr. Polyansky said Russia would point to the delay in the German investigation and its lack of transparency to the Security Council.

In September 2022, the "Nord Stream" natural gas pipeline leaked

According to the information disclosed by Germany, Kuznetsov led a six-member team to charter a yacht named Andromeda in Rostock, a port city in northern Germany, using forged documents. Then the team managed to avoid the detection of the closely monitored Baltic Sea and laid explosives on the seabed 70 to 80 meters deep.

This is very similar to what the Wall Street Journal a year ago. The report at the time pointed to Ukraine, saying that a group of Ukrainians ¡°drived by alcohol and patriotic enthusiasm¡± planned the operation with a very low budget. Citing several sources, Zelensky said that Zelensky initially approved several officers¡¯ plans to destroy the North Stream, but that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was informed about it and asked to stop it. Zelensky called for a halt after receiving instructions, but the Ukrainian armed forces ignored the order and continued to move forward.

Before the Wall Street Journal published the report, the case was largely deadlocked. This report was once regarded by many western observers as a decisive breakthrough in this case.

According to RT reports, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov had previously made it clear that such a scale of destruction operation could never be accomplished by a small team lacking professional training and support.

As early as last September, Lavrov commented: ¡°Five people sat down and drank, chatted, and then decided that they would rather blow up the North Stream? reports that they would dive, also rented boats, sailed to the waters through the North Stream pipeline, dive into the water and set up explosives, and then detonated them.¡±

Ukrainian man arrested in Italy: video

Lavrov bluntly said that if anyone really believed this rhetoric, it could only be those who were afraid of the truth and tried to defend the Ukraine government in any way.

The report pointed out that in the early days of the incident, Western officials and commentators were highly consistent, believing that the case was most likely the work of "state actors" and that Russia was regarded as the mastermind behind the scenes. Just days after the incident, the Washington Post published a commentary saying that usually only state actors are capable of carrying out such damage and warned the West to "prepare for more attacks," implying Russia's "suspicion" between the lines.

However, with less and less controversy about Russia, statements about ¡°state actors¡± have begun to diminish in Western media, but recent reports have shown that the German side believes the operation requires ¡°military planning.¡±

In addition, several experts have expressed doubts that a 15-meter-long yacht like the Andromeda could support an operation involving high explosives. According to German investigative documents obtained by Swedish television, the Nord Stream gas pipeline was damaged by at least four time bombs weighing 14 to 27 kilograms.

According to reports, this is not only about weight, but also about size and safety. The Andromeda yacht has limited space and no cargo space, and it is not practical to transport high explosives, because such explosives usually require storage containers, lifting equipment and complex detonation systems, which are carried almost beyond the reasonable carrying limits of small boats.

Many observers question whether it is really feasible to carry and deploy a complete set of sophisticated diving equipment, hybrid gas systems, explosive and transporting equipment, plus explosives themselves, while disguised as an ordinary sailing trip.

In addition, the feasibility of diving to the deep sea of 70 - 80 meters to lay explosives has also been questioned. Experts said that the depth of recreational scuba diving usually does not exceed 40 meters, and this operation required the placement of explosives on two pipelines 4 kilometers apart and four dives, each diving requiring the vessel to stay in the target area. About 3 hours. Such long deep dives are likely to require divers to be equipped with decompression chambers, which a vessel the size of the Andromeda could hardly accommodate.

There is also the mystery of how the Ukrainian operation team evaded detection, and how the operation, which took almost days to complete, was carried out.

Nato, which had stepped up sea and air patrols in the area because of the conflict with Ukraine, failed to detect any unusual activity. If a team of six had actually carried out the operation on a small yacht and gone undetected, it would have meant a serious breach in Nato's surveillance systems, something that many experts find hard to accept.

It is worth mentioning that in June 2022, NATO held military exercises in the waters near the explosion site. Senior U.S. journalist Seymour Hersh believes that NATO used this exercise as a cover to deploy remotely triggered explosives and detonated them three months later.

Four leakage points of the Nord Stream pipeline mapped by the Guardian

The "Nord Stream-1" pipeline was opened in 2012 and runs directly from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea to supply natural gas to European countries. The "Nord Stream-2" natural gas pipeline has a total length of about 1222 kilometers, parallel to the "Nord Stream-1" pipeline. It runs from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The project pipeline consists of two branch lines with a designed annual gas transmission capacity of approximately 55 billion cubic meters., aiming to bypass traditional transit countries such as Ukraine and supply natural gas directly to Europe. The pipeline project officially started in 2015 and was completed on September 10, 2021. However, it has been delayed due to obstruction from the United States.

Between 26 and 28 September 2022, at least four leaks of gas pipelines "Nord Stream 1" and "Nord Stream 2" were found in waters near Sweden and Denmark, suspected of man-made damage.

After the incident, Denmark, Sweden and Germany respectively launched investigations, but declined Russia's involvement.In February 2024, Sweden and Denmark announced the end of the investigation, but Germany said it would continue the investigation.

Now that Mr. Kuznetsov has been arrested, it remains to be seen whether the mystery of the Nord Stream explosion will be solved.

The Observer Network.