Nord Stream 1: Putin & Europe Engage in a Verbal Clash

• Putin accuses the West and the US of blowing up pipelines as Europe steps up vigilance. Russia has previously said the United States would profit from attacks on Europe’s energy infrastructure.
• West rejects Putin’s claim it sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines.
• Nordic nations said the undersea blasts that damaged the pipelines this week and have led to huge methane leaks involved several hundred pounds of explosives

By Editor Foreign Affairs

Moscow: Puttin is not coming slow. First, it was the Russian attack on Ukraine, and now, the way he has accused the US and Europe of sabotaging the Nord Gas Pipeline, only shows Russia is back to the cold war era.

The Russia-Ukraine war continues to cast a shadow on the peace and prosperity of the world. One of the other shocks continues emanating from the war zone which has only added to discomfort and displeasure around the globe. However, Puttin blames the US and Europe for all the events which have led to bloody confrontation.

Amid clapping and appreciation, Putin on Friday blamed the United States and its allies for blowing up the undersea Nord Stream pipelines, raising the temperature in a crisis that has left Europe racing to secure its energy infrastructure and supplies.

In a speech to mark the annexation of four Ukrainian regions invaded by Russian forces, Putin offered no evidence for the claim. Russia has previously said the United States would profit from attacks on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

“The sanctions were not enough for the Anglo-Saxons: they moved onto sabotage,” Putin said. “It is hard to believe but it is a fact that they organized the blasts on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines. They began to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure. It is clear to everyone who benefits from this. Of course, he who benefits did it,” Reuters quoted Putin as saying.

The United States and its allies immidiately rejected the claims putting the blame back on Putin for sabotaging the pipeline. . Nordic nations said on Friday, soon after Putin’s speech, the undersea blasts that damaged the pipelines this week and have led to huge methane leaks involved several hundred pounds of explosives.

The claim by Putin came ahead of an emergency meeting Friday at the U.N. Security Council in New York on the attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, and as Norwegian researchers published a map projecting that a huge plume of methane from the damaged pipelines will travel over large swaths of the Nordic region.

European Union states have been hevily depending on Russia to meet their energy requirement. However, Europe is now trying to find alternative gas supplies, say they believe leaks were caused by sabotage, but have stopped short of naming anyone. They are racing to secure other energy infrastructure.

The Nord Stream pipelines, which were not pumping gas to Europe when the leaks were found but had gas in them, have been flashpoints in an energy standoff between the West and Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, fuelling a cost-of-living crisis.

Russian President has blamed the US and Europe for conspiring to destroy Nord Stream 1, a charge which both have denied saying an investigation has been launched to unfold the mystery.

Moscow says it wants a thorough international probe to assess the damage to the pipelines, which were filled with gas but not supplying it to Europe. Putin’s spokesman has said “it looks like a terror attack, probably conducted on a state level.”

European nations, which have been reeling under soaring energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have noted that it is Russia, not Europe, that benefits from chaos in the energy markets and spiking prices for energy.

A report published by ‘PBSHous’ has stated that the U.S. has long opposed to the two pipelines and had repeatedly urged Germany to halt them, saying they increased Europe’s energy dependence on Russia and decreased its security. Since the war in Ukraine began in February, Russia has cut back supplies of natural gas sent to Europe to heat homes, generate electricity, and run factories. European leaders have accused Putin of using “energy blackmail” to divide them in their strong support for Ukraine.

Russia stopped gas flows through the 1,224-kilometer (760-mile) long Nord Stream 1 earlier this month, blaming technical problems, while the parallel Nord Stream 2 pipeline had never opened.

Denmark and Sweden, meanwhile, said Friday that the explosions that rocked the Baltic Sea ahead of the huge methane leaks from the pipelines “probably corresponded to an explosive load of several hundred kilos (pounds).”

The leaks occurred in international waters and ”have caused plumes of gas rising to the surface,” the two Scandinavian countries wrote in a letter to the United Nations.