Brussels A short, sharp denial, that’s it. The US government has so far been taciturn about the Nord Stream report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Hersh blames the US for blowing up the Baltic Sea pipelines. US combat divers carried out the attack in close cooperation with the Norwegian government, he writes in a blog entry.
But the White House’s silence has fueled speculation even further. A wild debate has broken out about the background to the explosions on September 26, 2022, in which both strands of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one of two strands of the sister pipeline Nord Stream 2 broke, especially in Germany. The Bundestag has already dealt with the Hersh theses, most recently even the Security Council of the United Nations.
Now the Americans are changing their strategy. James Rubin, the US government’s special envoy to combat disinformation, was in Brussels last week for talks. He made it clear: “The allegations are untrue. It would be crazy of us to do such a thing. And we didn’t.”
Hersh appears to have been fed by sources that are “weird and irrational.” The reason for the US government’s cautious reaction so far was the calculation not to pay more attention to the story “because it’s so ludicrous”.
Rubin, who was married to CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour for 20 years, takes a more aggressive approach: “I have no problem denying the claims outright,” he said.
The struggle over what counts as truth has developed into one of the most important areas of foreign policy in recent years. Authoritarian states like Russia and China try to distort debates in democratic countries and influence the formation of opinions. Rubin’s position was created to counter these efforts.
The Nord Stream 2 line lands in Lubmin in northern Germany.
(Photo: AP)
But in the case of the pipeline explosion, the Americans did not find it easy to assert their innocence. A fierce transatlantic dispute was raging over Nord Stream 2. The United States has repeatedly warned the federal government against becoming dangerously dependent on Moscow for energy. President Donald Trump eventually signed legislation to torpedo Nord Stream 2. With sanctions, however, not with explosives.
The completion of the pipeline was delayed but not prevented. One reason: Joe Biden’s election victory in November 2020. The Democrat wanted to renounce his predecessor’s brute politics and repair relations with Germany. Biden refrained from applying the sanctions law in its full severity.
Loud protests came from Congress, where Nord Stream 2 met bipartisan opposition. The more Russian troops deployed on the border with Ukraine, the greater the pressure on Biden. To appease his critics, Biden clarified on February 7, 2022 during Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s inaugural visit: “If Russia invades, there will be no more Nord Stream 2. We will put an end to this.”
Did Biden hint at the attack plans, as the Hersh article suggests? One thing is certain: the Biden government has repeatedly dealt with the Nord Stream dilemma. A few weeks after Biden took office, his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, called confidants to discuss the pipeline issue.
America’s last resort: the “nuclear option”
As the Handelsblatt learned from diplomats who were privy to the US government’s deliberations, dramatic steps to stop Nord Stream 2 were being considered. Including a measure that was referred to internally as a “nuclear option”. What was meant here, however, was not a bomb, but an ultimate economic penalty. Specifically: sanctions against Gazprom, the Russian energy company that operated Nord Stream 1 and 2.
Had the US sanctioned Gazprom, gas exports from Russia to the EU would likely have come to a halt. In order not to jeopardize Europe’s security of supply, the White House shied away from this extreme measure.
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Ultimately, the Washington business games were superfluous. When Russia made the final preparations for war by annexing the Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, the German government suspended the certification of Nord Stream 2. The pipeline never went into operation.
In the summer of 2022, the Russians began to slow down gas transit through Nord Stream 1 until it finally came to a complete standstill a few weeks before the pipeline exploded. When Danish and Swedish measuring stations registered the tremors on the Baltic Sea floor on September 27 and discovered the leaks a little later, the German-Russian energy relationship was already in ruins. This is what Rubin, America’s disinformation fighter, is referring to when he says of the Hersh report, “It would be insane of us to do something like that.”
But then who was it? The investigators have ruled out an accident, otherwise they remain silent. The most likely variant among European diplomats is still that the Russians blew up the pipelines themselves. This is supported by the fact that one strand of Nord Stream 2 remained undamaged and the Kremlin offered Germany deliveries through this pipe – knowing full well that the offer could split the West.
But there are other options. The US political scientist Ian Bremmer recently speculated that the Ukrainians could have carried out the attack. There is no evidence that Ukraine would be able to do this at all is questionable.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also spoken out in the meantime, but without saying much. “One can guess who blew up the pipeline,” said Scholz in a citizen survey. “Even if everyone here probably thinks what it’s like, you shouldn’t indulge in speculation.”
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