Russia’s Gazprom releases photos of the explosive-laden device found near the Nord Stream pipeline to Europe in 2015.
The piece of munitions was found in close proximity to the Nord Stream Line 2 on November 6, 2015, during routine survey operations as part of annual integrity assessment activities of the Nord Stream offshore pipeline system. Munitions Object Found Near Nord Stream Pipeline has been Successfully Cleared
NATO mine destroyer found at Nord Stream 1: Gazprom
FROM AL MAYADEEN – A NATO mine destroyer was discovered around the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline in November 2015, a spokesperson for the pipeline’s operator, Sergei Kupriyanov, Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday.
Spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov recalled how NATO claimed at the time that the device was lost during exercises conducted in the region. He also highlighted how the device was pulled out by the Swedish armed forces, who then defused it.
“Today, it is necessary to recall the events on the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which have already been recorded earlier. This case is well known. On November 6, 2015, during a scheduled visual inspection of the Nord Stream gas pipeline (1), the NATO underwater mine destroyer “Sea Fox” was discovered. He was lying in the space between the gas pipelines, clearly at one of the threads,” he said on the air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel according to Interfax.
“Then the explosive device was removed and neutralized by the Swedish armed forces. The transportation of gas, which was stopped due to an emergency, was resumed. NATO announced that an underwater fuse was lost during the exercises. This is such a NATO exercise. When a military explosive device is located exactly under our gas pipeline,” Kupriyanov added.
The Nord Stream gas pipelines were damaged by two explosions, according to Danish officials during a NATO conference, each with the force of around 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of TNT, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing persons familiar with the case.
Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines were struck in Danish waters near the island of Bornholm. The Swedish and Danish governments announced the discovery of two gas leaks caused by submarine explosions, with the general agreement being that the occurrence was the result of sabotage.
Previous reports said Flightradar24 data showed that US military helicopters habitually and on numerous occasions circled for hours over the site of the Nord Stream pipelines incident near Bornholm Island earlier in September.
Following the incident, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel claimed that Berlin is convinced that the loss of pressure in the three natural gas pipelines between Russia and Germany was not a coincidence and suspects a “targeted attack”.
These revelations come after German newspaper Der Siegel reported that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) warned the German government there would be attacks on Nord Stream gas pipelines weeks ahead of any incident being reported around the pipelines.
Meanwhile, Gazprom has been subjected to various disputes in recent days after the Russian firm decided to end its activities in Switzerland and temporarily suspend its gas supplies to Italy.
Gazprom suspended Saturday gas deliveries to Italy due to a transport problem in Austria.
“The reason is related to the regulatory changes that took place in Austria at the end of September,” Gazprom explained.
In light of the whole debacle, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined two days ago that the scenario surrounding Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines is first and foremost beneficial to the United States, which is interested in forcing competitors off the European natural gas market.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of being behind the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines. He said it had already “practically begun to destroy shared European energy infrastructure,” stressing that “it is obvious to all who is profiting from this.”
SOURCE: AL MAYADEEN – NATO mine destroyer found at Nord Stream 1: Gazprom
A NATO submarine under the Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2015
FROM CAMEROON VOICE – An unmanned submarine fitted with an explosive device ended up under the pipeline back in 2015, Russia’s energy giant recalled.
The US-led NATO alliance has been very active in waters around Nord Stream and once even managed to “lose” an armed underwater drone right under the pipeline, a Gazprom spokesman has said.
“On November 6, 2015, a NATO underwater mine destroyer ‘Seafox’ was discovered during a scheduled visual inspection of the Nord Stream gas pipeline,” Sergey Kupriyanov told Rossiya 24 on Monday.
The device was found resting on the seabed at a depth of 40m between the Nord Stream pipelines, almost directly under one of them, Kupriyanov said. The incident, which received limited media coverage at the time, prompted a brief halt in gas deliveries, while the drone was ultimately recovered by the Swedish military.
Back then, the US-led bloc said it had “lost” the device during military drills, the spokesman claimed. The German-made drone carries a 1.4kg shaped-charge warhead, which is intended for destroying sunken unexploded munitions and mines, according to publicly available data.
“That’s NATO drills for you, when a military-grade explosive device ends up straight under our pipeline,” Kupriyanov concluded.
The remarks come in the aftermath of the apparent sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream pipeline system. The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines both abruptly lost pressure on September 26, following a series of powerful underwater explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm. The ruptures caused massive gas leaks into the open sea and rendered the pipelines inoperable.
While Moscow has called for an international – with its own participation – probe into the incident, other parties appear to be reluctant to carry out such an investigation. Sweden, for instance, has already explicitly stated it will not share the results of its investigation into the explosion with Moscow.
“In Sweden, our preliminary investigations are confidential, and that, of course, also applies in this case,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told reporters on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already blamed the “the Anglo-Saxons,” a Russian colloquialism for the US-UK alliance, of being behind the blasts, which Moscow described as an “act of international terrorism.” Speaking during a meeting of the Russian Security Council on Monday, Putin said that “we all know well who the ultimate beneficiary of this crime is.”
Source: CAMEROON VOICE – A NATO submarine under the Nord Stream gas pipeline since 2015 according to Gazprom (R.T.)