‘Serious sabotage’ suspected in Baltic Sea pipeline explosions
Sweden’s domestic security agency said Thursday that its initial investigation into explosions last week along two Russian natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea “has strengthened suspicions of serious sabotage” as the cause.
Separately, a Swedish prosecutor said “seizures have been made at the crime scene and these will now be investigated,” although he did not identify the seized evidence.
Neither of the underwater pipelines from Russia to Germany, Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, had been in use at the time of the explosions but for days sent methane from the pipes bubbling to the surface off the coasts of Sweden and Denmark.
Some Scandinavian officials have speculated that Russia detonated the pipeline explosions as a way to punish Western allies for their support of Ukrainian forces fighting Moscow’s seven-month invasion and to reduce the possible flow of fuel for the coming winter months.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of attacking the pipelines, which the US and its allies have strongly denied. They have said that Russia had the most to gain from disrupting Europe’s energy supply.
The security police said their investigation confirmed that “detonations” caused extensive damage to the pipelines. The security agency said what happened in the Baltic Sea was “very serious”, but did not release further details of its investigation.
Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said he gave “directives to temporarily block [the area around the damaged pipelines to] do a crime scene investigation.”
But he said that now that the initial sounding is complete, the blockade around the pipelines outside Sweden will be lifted.
The Danish and Swedish governments had previously said they suspected several hundred pounds of explosives were used to damage the pipelines.
Some of the material in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.