A Swedish agency on Oct. 6 found in its preliminary investigation that leaks from the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea were likely caused by “serious sabotage.”
“During the crime scene investigation ... seizures have been made,” the Security Service stated. “As part of the work,” it added in a statement, “the seizures will now be reviewed and analyzed.”
“The continued preliminary investigation must show whether someone can be served with suspicion and later prosecuted,” the agency said, adding the blasts are a “very serious” development.
Now that the initial investigation is completed, a blockade around the pipelines off Sweden will be lifted, Swedish officials also said on Oct. 6.
The governments of Denmark and Sweden previously said they suspected that several hundred pounds of explosives were involved in carrying out a deliberate act of sabotage. The leaks from Nord Stream 1 and 2 discharged huge amounts of methane into the air.
Energy Standoff
Officials in the European Union have publicly suspected sabotage, since the ruptures occurred in the midst of an energy standoff between the EU, Germany, and Moscow. Authorities in Moscow have said accusations that Russia is likely to blame are “predictably stupid,” noting that the pipelines are Russian-owned infrastructure and that the natural gas inside them is also Russian in origin.
It’s also been suggested that the United States or one of its allies was behind the sabotage attack, which Pentagon and White House officials have categorically denied.
Earlier this week, a top economist with Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs, publicly speculated that the United States would have the most to gain from the attack because it would then be able to sell its natural gas to Europe by cutting out Russia.
Sachs also pointed to public statements made by President Joe Biden about the pipeline and last week’s comment from Secretary of State Antony Blinken that it’s now a “tremendous opportunity” for the EU to reduce dependency on Russian gas.
US Not Involved in ‘Sabotage’
During a Fox News interview on Oct. 4, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby flatly denied that Washington had anything to do with the incident. Those allegations, he asserted, are Russian propaganda.“That’s just Russian propaganda and disinformation,” Kirby told Fox News. “Now, we know it was an act of sabotage, but there’s an investigation going on right now. I don’t think we’re going to get into credentialing that in terms of who was responsible. We’re going to let the investigators take a look at that. But, clearly, this was an act of sabotage.”
No nation-state or group has claimed responsibility for the blasts. The United States also hasn’t accused any country of carrying out a sabotage attack.
“Again, I can’t speak to specific accountability for this act of sabotage,” Kirby said. “I can just assure you the United States had nothing to do with it, of course. That’s just Russian propaganda.”
But later in the interview, Kirby implied that Russia could be behind it.
“Just look at what Russia has done in the past since the last seven months of this war and when it began and that is to weaponize energy,” he said.
