German Political Heavyweight Renews Questions Over Destruction of Nord Stream Pipeline

Adding to the list of President Biden’s summer headaches, a rising German political operative is renewing questions over who authored the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea.The remarks by one of the most prominent backers of Germany’s right-wing Alternative für Deutschland party, Sven von Storch, could complicate the White House’s efforts to distance itself from ongoing efforts to get to the bottom of the matter. It could add fuel to some Republican arguments that the White House’s Ukraine strategy is faltering.The AfD is a far-right, Eurosceptic party that is steadily moving into mainstream German politics. It is making inroads on the current center-right coalition to the extent it is now considered the second-strongest political force in Germany. Part of its success is due to the strategic alchemy of Mr. von Storch, whose wife is the AfD’s deputy chairman.Mr. von Storch told the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that “the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipeline clearly showed how dependent the government in Berlin is on the United States.” A spokesman for AfD told the Sun, “We demand that the attack must be completely cleared up.” Germany’s “federal government doesn’t seem to be interested in clarifying the matter,” the spokesman added.Mr. Biden, speaking beside the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, told reporters in February 2022 that if Russia invaded Ukraine “we will bring an end to Nord Stream 2.”The steel gas pipelines, three out of four of which suffered extensive damage after a series of undersea explosions last year, are majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom along with a consortium of European, mainly German, stakeholders. At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, the under secretary of state for political affairs, Victoria Nuland, said, “I am and I think the [Biden] administration is very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”Despite the foregoing statements, the destruction of the pipelines — which sharply curtailed Russia’s ability to deliver its natural gas to Germany — remains a mystery, at least officially. According to Deutsche Welle, “fingers have been pointed at the Russians, Americans, Ukrainians, and Poles” in the spectacular underwater caper last year. In April, the Washington Post cast doubt on one theory involving a mysterious sailboat and, seconding that, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera was swift to dismiss it as a “bone thrown to the media.”Yet few entities other than the most powerful of militaries have the technical means and operational capacities to successfully execute such a complex operation. A professor emeritus of science, technology, and international security at MIT, Theodore Postol, told the Sun that “it would be a rather small subset of divers who would be qualified to plant explosive devices at the depths where we know the explosives were set off.”The devices used were anything but petite. “Each of the munitions used probably weighed roughly 500 pounds,” Dr. Postol said, adding, “This weight would have to be handled by the divers, so some buoyancy device would have to be attached so that the divers could handle it.” While that might sound like something out of a spy movie, according to the professor it is “doable.” Yet he asked: “How many people would have the skill and knowledge to plan and execute this part of the operation, let alone many other parts of it?”There are reports that some social media companies like Facebook have attempted to suppress certain articles about Nord Stream and that Biden administration officials may have had a role in such efforts. This month a federal judge halted Biden administration efforts to curb free speech online in the name of anti-disinformation, though an appeals court has allowed the program to continue for now.A representative for Congressman Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, told the Sun that “as far as the Nord Stream Pipeline” and related attempts to stifle free speech, “it’s definitely something we should look into.”White House obfuscation over certain matters pertaining to international security may be nothing new, and any American role in tinkering with undersea pipelines overseas could be cast as either cunning or reckless, depending on one’s perspective. The episode is important, because while it is easy to forget, the war is being talked about on Capitol Hill but fought in Europe, with all the consequences that implies.Recent polling in Europe shows that support for Ukraine is dipping, and markedly in Germany and Italy.That makes Herr von Storch’s remarks all the more relevant. Secretary Blinken just announced a new raft of sanctions targeting Russian mining, technology, and munitions firms as well as commercial banks — part of an ongoing Washington effort to essentially decouple Russia from the global economy. Yet political parties like the AfD speak to European discontent with being caught in the middle of an endless, and so far mostly fruitless, slugfest between Washington and Moscow. It is Mr. von Storch’s view that “German patriots understand that the conflict in Ukraine only serves the interests of the globalists in Washington, London, and Brussels.” The movement of parties like his from the fringes to the mainstream tracks a sense among some on the Continent that in contrast to Mr. Blinken’s “as long as it takes” stance on aid for Ukraine, the time may be approaching to say “enough is enough.”

German Political Heavyweight Renews Questions Over Destruction of Nord Stream Pipeline

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