Who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline?

It remains unclear who sabotaged the "NordStream1" and "NordStream2" pipelines, which transmit natural gas from Russia to Europe. Analysts are making a laundry list of "usual suspects" based on the question "who stands to benefit the most from this murder", which was popularized by the crime novels of British author Agatha Christie.

Of course, Russia suffers the most from the destruction of the pipelines, which cost 20 billion dollars. Moscow becomes the “big loser”. Germany is the main buyer of Russian gas. Thus, the second biggest loser is Germany. Natural gas accounts for 70 percent of the industrial energy consumption of Germany, the engine of the European economy. That's why analysts point out that an economic crisis due to energy shortages can have a "domino effect".

Energy accounts for 80 percent of Russia's exports. Considering that Russia's biggest customer is Europe, the strategic importance of the destruction of pipelines will be better understood. The cuts in power lines mean that Russia loses its most important trump card on Germany, the key country of the European Union. The "energy trump card" provided a strategic leverage for Russia, which was subjected to heavy sanctions due to the invasion of Ukraine. Russia will be deprived of this leverage for a while. It is said that it will take months to repair the destroyed lines. With the effect of winter, Europe's energy crisis is likely to deepen.

So where and how will Europe get the energy it needs? At this point, the U.S., which is rich in liquefied gas, comes into play. Washington has been attempting to sell liquefied gas to Europe since the Trump era. The biggest supporter of the U.S. in Europe is Poland. One of the first customers of American gas was Poland, although it was much more expensive than Russian gas and the supply by tankers took quite a long time.

The US was opposed to "North Stream-2" on the grounds that it would increase Europe's dependence on Russian gas. US President Joe Biden was also one of the opponents of this project. Biden suspended the sanctions imposed on Nord Stream2 during the Trump era in order not to cool relations with Germany. Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House on February 7, 2022. At the press conference after the meeting, Biden said, "I promise we will do this" when asked by journalists, "Will the Nord Stream-2 project be canceled if Russia enters Ukraine?" But Biden skipped over how and in what way they would do it.

That's why analysts place the United States first among the usual suspects of the attack. American hawks claim that Russia is the perpetrator of the attack. The question of why Russia sabotaged its own lines remains unanswered. World-renowned American economist Prof. Jeffrey Sachs pointed out that the main suspect was the U.S. According to anti-Russian hawks, these comments are "baseless conspiracy theory" or "Russian disinformation".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued that the attack was not in anyone's interest. According to Blinken, this is very important for Europe in terms of the supply of alternative energy sources and presents a tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come. Blinken also said that the only alternative for Europe's gas supply was the U.S.

An interesting comment about the sabotage came from Radoslaw Sikorski, one of the former Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs of Poland. In his message on Twitter, Sikorski shared the photo of the gas leak and said, "Thank you, USA." He is married to the American journalist-author Anne Applebaum, who is described as the voice of neo-liberals and Neocons.

Numerous American strategists argue that Sikorksi used sarcastic language and did not mean that the United States was behind the attack. Elisabeth Braw of the American Enterprise Institute stated that the message, which she described as "extremely stupid", gave the Russians the upper hand in the "play of influence". Braw was advising those who use social media to act more responsibly. However, Sikorski himself, who ignited these discussions, preferred to remain "silent."