DISINFO: Washington scapegoats Kyiv for Nord Stream explosion to restore relations with Germany
SUMMARY
The CIA's involvement in the Nord Stream explosion is a humiliation for Germany. Thus, Washington and Berlin found a scapegoat in Kyiv so that they would not quarrel. Why now? So that the news appears to be the results of the investigation, and not just a leak from the CIA. As for Ukraine, the United States has been disappointed with it as a project, as it has yielded fewer benefits than expected. Hence, blaming the explosion on Roman Chervinsky helps the United States resolves the misunderstanding with Berlin regarding the Nord Stream explosion.
RESPONSE
Disinformation alleging that the US is behind the explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
This assertation is not backed by credible evidence and is based on Seymour Hersh's claims on his blog that the US was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year. In a self-published report, Hersh wrote a story allegedly based on one anonymous source, 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.
A number of factcheckers have pointed to numerous flaws in Hersh's story, which has received attention from Kremlin.
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, ongoing investigations by Swedish, Danish, and German authorities have not assigned blame to any specific country or actor.
Recently, the Washington Post published an investigation together with German Der Spiegel implicating Roman Chervinsky, a colonel in Ukraine's special operations forces, in the Nord Stream sabotage operation based on information collected from anonymous sources.
From early on after the explosion, the United States and NATO, and the three investigating countries, described it as an act of sabotage. Due to the complexity of such investigations, it often takes a long time to reach a definitive conclusion. Many countries caution against prematurely jumping to conclusions, as Russia does by pointing fingers at the United States.
See similar cases that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by US intelligence, that the US benefits from the destroying of Nord Stream because it can now sell more liquefied natural gas to Europe; that the US blew up Nord Stream so that the EU would arm Ukraine, and that Nord Stream destruction was an American terrorist attack.