Remember: the US is the only country with the ability to dive to 4900 FT depth and conduct sabotage operations. This subsea technology employs the DSRV or the newer Pressurized Rescue Module (PRM) FALCON carrying SEAL/EOD teams riding to the site aboard a US fast attack nuclear submarine and diving down to the target.
But most of the Baltic is not that deep. The average depth in the vicinity of the breaks (western Baltic) is under 200 meters.
Well within the capabilities of any naval power – US, UK, Poland, and even Ukraine.
Sweden and Denmark both report powerful underwater explosions: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/svt-avslojar-tva-explosioner-intill-nord-stream
With that in mind, here is Fox News/Reuters.
The Nord Stream gas pipeline system endured “unprecedented” damage to three offshore lines on the bed of the Baltic Sea in one day, Nord Stream AG, the network’s operator, said on Tuesday.
The AG said it was impossible to estimate when the gas network system’s working capability would be restored.
“The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented. It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure,” the operator told reporters.
Nord Stream 1 features two parallel lines with a nominal capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year each and started supplying gas directly from Russia to Germany in 2011.
FILE- The Nord Stream gas pipeline system endured “unprecedented” damage to three offshore lines in one day, Nord Stream AG, the network’s operator, said on Tuesday. (Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Flows through the pipeline, which had been working at just 20% capacity since July, were stopped at the end of August and were not resumed after maintenance was finished.
Russia attributes the problem to faulty equipment at a key compressor station and Western sanctions over its war against Ukraine.
FILE- The AG said it was impossible to estimate when the gas network system’s working capability would be restored. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber / AP Newsroom)
Nord Stream 2 runs almost parallel to Nord Stream 1. Nord Stream 2 was built in September 2021 but was never launched because Germany would not certify it. The project was stopped altogether just days ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The damaged lines come after ships were directed on Monday to steer clear of a five nautical mile radius off the island of Bornholm following an overnight gas leak from the defunct Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline that had drained into the Baltic Sea, followed by Sweden’s Maritime Authority issuing a warning about two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
FILE- The operator said the “destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented.” (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File / AP Newsroom)
The operator of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline also said Monday that a pressure drop had occurred on both lines of the gas pipeline.
Per Bloomberg, the leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines are forming an area of natural gas bubbles in the Baltic Sea, a video released by the Danish army on its website showed.
Ian Fleming wrote: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action.”
In case there is any doubt, here is the Sock Puppet in Chief on February 7, 2022:
Econophysics2020 