Has panicking Putin blown up his gas pipelines to Europe?
RUSSIA was yesterday accused of sabotage after ‘unprecedented’ damage to the undersea pipelines that supply gas to Europe.
Explosions were heard near the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipes where gas is now leaking into the Baltic from three holes, scientists confirmed.
Uncertainty remains over how and why such attacks were carried out, but some states and analysts are pointing the finger of blame at Russia – which owns and operates the pipelines.
While it may not be in Russia’s long-term economic interests to destroy one of its key potential money earners, the destructive act could create economic panic in Europe in the short term.
Yesterday gas bubbles up to 3,000ft wide could be seen on the surface of the Baltic Sea, near the borders of Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
Chronic safety concerns mean a 8km exclusion zone for shipping has been set up around the affected areas and any flights below 3,000ft have been banned.
The leaks, which emerged on Monday and are expected to last several days, raised concerns over environmental damage.
They caused a spike in the price of natural resources – a possible Russian motivation for sabotage.
Initially they were assumed to have been accidental, but opinions rapidly changed yesterday with several governments stating that three separate leaks happening almost simultaneously was beyond coincidence.
In Moscow, the Kremlin said it did not rule out sabotage as a reason for the damage to the Russian-built network, which has not been supplying any gas to Germany in recent months.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘This is very concerning news. No option can be ruled out right now.’
But European neighbours said that the sabotage was carried out by Russia itself – even though it would be hugely damaging in economic terms,
Poland’s prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said: ‘We don’t know all the details of what happened, but we see clearly that it’s an act of sabotage, related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine.’
Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian president Volodymyr
Zelensky, blamed Russia for a ‘terrorist’ attack against the EU.
‘Russia wants to destabilise the economic situation in Europe and cause pre-winter panic,’ he said.
Neither the Nord Stream 1 or 2 is currently in operation. No gas has flowed through either pipeline since the start of the month.
However, both still contain gas, and it was expected they will one day resume supply to Europe
‘It’s an act of sabotage’ ‘Wants to cause pre-winter panic’
when the war ends. So while the leaks will have no impact on global supplies, they will have an impact on prices over fears for future supplies.
European gas prices rose on the news of the leaks, with the benchmark October Dutch price up almost 10 per cent yesterday.
Other experts suggested the saboteurs may have used unmanned submarines to target the pipelines which are 300ft below the surface of the sea.