The far-left New York Times claimed Tuesday that a “pro-Ukrainian group” blew up the strategic Nord Stream pipeline that carried natural gas from Russia to Europe, citing intelligence of an unknown origin allegedly reviewed by anonymous sources.
The pipeline explosion in September 2022 caused an environmental disaster and an estimated $500,000 worth of damage. No investigations have officially identified a culprit.
The Times published a report citing an alleged intelligence leak, but not identifying the source of the intelligence beyond identifying it as “newly collected intelligence.” The newspaper claimed it had unnamed American officials review the information. Those officials reportedly refused to provide how the intelligence “was obtained or any details of the strength of the evidence.”
The leak suggested non-state opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin performed the sabotage. The alleged leak did not specify the identity of the group or who paid for the complex and very skilled pipeline explosions that caused what Inside Climate News described as “the largest-ever release of the potent greenhouse gas during a single event.”
In this Handout Photo provided by Swedish Coast Guard, the release of gas emanating from a leak on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea on September 28, 2022, in At Sea. (Swedish Coast Guard via Inside Climate News)
European officials have said the Nord Stream rupture was likely a state-sponsored attack because of the sophistication required to execute such a bombing. Publicly available reports speculate the destruction was caused by detonated explosives on the floor of the Baltic Sea, taking place without detection by its owner, a subsidiary of the Russian energy giant Gazprom. European companies are also part owners in the Russian pipeline that transferred vital fossil fuel to Europe.
Nord Stream 2, a second pipeline affected by the leaks, was completed but had never been used to transport fuel, as its completion would have occurred nearly at the same time as Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, prompting hesitancy from Russia’s European partners.
The alleged leaked intelligence in Tuesday’s report suggests the attack was not state sponsored. According to the Times report, U.S. officials who “reviewed” the intelligence believe the “saboteurs were most likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals, or some combination of the two.” In addition, the leak left open “the possibility that the operation might have been conducted off the books by a proxy force with connections to the Ukrainian government or its security services,” but refused to provide any certainty on the nationality of the perpetrators.
The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for its coverage of Ukraine — namely, reports falsely claiming that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was not engaging in the Holodomor, a genocide that killed at least 1.5 million Ukrainians, mostly through starvation. The reporter who won the prize, Walter Duranty, referred to the genocide as a “scare story” designed to terrorize the West and to the victims of the genocide as “hungry, but not starving.”
The Times report follows another anonymously sourced report from journalist Seymour Hersh last month accusing the United States government of blowing up the pipelines at the direction of President Joe Biden. Hersh’s report recalled Biden’s public statement that the U.S. would “bring an end” to the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline if Russia invaded Ukraine:
The White House National Council stated the report was “utterly false and complete fiction.” The CIA and the State Department also cast doubt on the report. The government of China has enthusiastically promoted it.
Shortly after the pipeline explosions, media pundits rushed to suggest Russia was involved in the incident and smeared many, including Tucker Carlson, who questioned whether Russia was actually responsible for the sabotage. Russia has denied responsibility for the incident.
Kevin T. Dugan of the Intelligencer claimed Carlson was “happy” to push Russia’s denial of the explosions after Carlson suggested the “people lecturing you about your SUV may have blown up a natural gas pipeline and created one of the great catastrophes of our time in its effect on the environment.”
“This was happily taken up by Tucker Carlson, who went on his show to suggest that the U.S. was responsible for the explosions as a way to get more people to buy electric vehicles,” Dugan wrote. “This was immediately co-opted by Russian propaganda outlets.”
On September 30, 2022, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the pipeline sabotage meant the U.S. was now “the leading supplier of [liquefied natural gas] to Europe.” He also stated the Biden administration was working with European leaders to “decrease demand” and “speed up the transition to renewables.”
“It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs,” Blinken said.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.