DISINFO: Polish FM Sikorski should disclose the information on the US connection to the Nord Stream destruction
SUMMARY
The Polish Foreign Ministry Radosław Sikorski should disclose the information about the attacks on the Nord Stream. This person should tell what he knows about the American role in this crime.
RESPONSE
Conspiracy theory not backed by credible evidence and part of a wider Kremlin disinformation campaign aiming to fill the information space and portray the US as responsible for the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage discovered on 26 September 2022.
Investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh claims that the US was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year. In a self-published blog post report, Hersh wrote that US Navy divers helped by Norway had planted explosives on the pipelines running under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany last June and detonated them three months later.
The story by Hersh was allegedly built on information from one anonymous source claiming to have information on all aspects of the case. A number of factcheckers have pointed to numerous flaws in Hersh's story, which has received wide attention from the Kremlin's key propaganda outlets.
This is part of a wider pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign aiming to amplify and exploit Seymour Hersh’s controversial article accusing the US of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines. The article can’t be considered evidence of this: it is based on a single, unidentified anonymous source and published in Hersh’s personal blog, so no editorial scrutiny was involved in its preparation.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson described Hersh's report as "complete fiction." A Central Intelligence Agency spokesperson echoed the White House denial, calling the report "completely and utterly false." Asked about Hersh's claim that Oslo supported the operation, the Norwegian foreign ministry said: "These claims are false."
Sweden, Germany, and Denmark investigate the incident. The preliminary Danish investigation only found that the leaks in the pipelines were caused by powerful explosions. Sweden’s authorities found evidence of detonations, thus strengthening suspicions of “gross sabotage”. But so far investigations by Swedish, Danish, and German authorities have not pinned the blame on any one country or actor.
For a comprehensive analysis of the issue, please read our article Nord Stream 1 & 2 sabotage - disinformation a la MH-17.
See more disinformation cases related to Nord Stream claiming that The US blew up Nord Stream 1 and 2 to sell more gas to Europe, that the US benefits from destroying of Nord Stream because it can now sell more liquefied natural gas to Europe, that the US is instigating the war in Ukraine to boycott the NS2 project, that Nord Stream 2 is the only guarantee of Europe's energy security, that the EU's gas problems are a result of its fight for "energy independence".