Gee, You Think?

I understand that the first casualty of war is the truth, but the assertions from anonymous sources that Russia blew up the Nord Stream 1 & 2 pipelines has always been bullsh%$.

All they needed to do to cut off Europe was to shut the valve on their end.

People who promulgated this, the anonymous, "Five European officials with direct knowledge of security discussions," lie are either liars, stupid, or both: (Truth is always the first casualty of war)

After explosions in late September severely damaged undersea pipelines built to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe, world leaders quickly blamed Moscow for a brazen and dangerous act of sabotage. [This link has the anonymous quote above] With winter approaching, it appeared the Kremlin intended to strangle the flow of energy to millions across the continent, an act of “blackmail,” some leaders said, designed to threaten countries into withdrawing their financial and military support for Ukraine.

But now, after months of investigation, numerous officials privately say that Russia may not be to blame after all for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines.

“There is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage,” said one European official, echoing the assessment of 23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries interviewed in recent weeks.

Some went so far as to say they didn’t think Russia was responsible. Others who still consider Russia a prime suspect said positively attributing the attack — to any country — may be impossible.

 Again, why would Russia blow up a pipeline when it could simply shut off the supply, and had, in fact already shut off much of the supply, is laughable.

………

Given the relatively shallow depth of the damaged pipelines — approximately 80 yards at the site of one explosion — a number of different actors could theoretically have pulled off the attack, possibly with the use of submersible drones or with the aid of surface ships, officials said. The list of suspects isn’t limited only to countries that possess manned submarines or deep-sea demolitions expertise.

While a depth of 80 meters is roughly twice the depth one would normally see with recreational divers, you can reach depths of over 120 meters with various alternative gas mixtures, and even then, there are plenty of remotely operated ROVs that could deliver an explosive to that depth.

It should be noted that the warhead weight for a heavyweight torpedo is 200-300 kg, and a lightweight torpedo has a warhead in the 50-100  kg range, an ROV with a warhead of this range would not require any particularly difficult design or manufacturing work.