Leaks in Russian pipelines may be 'sabotage'

(27 Sep 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Lubmin, Germany - 21 July 2022
1. Various of Nord Stream 1 pipe systems at gas station
DANISH DEFENCE COMMAND
Baltic Sea - 27 September 2022
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2. Various aerial shots from military showing a disturbance in the water resulting from a leak pipeline ++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Copenhagen - 27 September 2022
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Anders Puck Nielsen, a researcher with the Center for Maritime Operations at the Royal Danish Defence College:
"There have been three incidents of the leakage from gas pipes, one from the Nord Stream 2, and two from the Nord Stream 1. And it's a very rare thing that that would happen, such a leakage. And the fact that we have three of them in 24 hours, that's extremely unusual. So, I mean, it's definitely something that begs the question, is this actually sabotage or some kind of hybrid warfare that we are witnessing here? Because it's a very, very unusual. And also, I would point out that it happens on the same day that another pipeline, the Baltic Pipe, is opening and running through the same area and it's providing gas from Norway to Poland. So that's actually one of the tools that Europe is planning on using to reduce the dependence on Russian gas."
DANISH DEFENCE COMMAND
Baltic Sea - 27 September 2022
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4. Various aerial shots from military showing a disturbance in the water resulting from a leak pipeline ++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Copenhagen - 27 September 2022
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) Anders Puck Nielsen, a researcher with the Center for Maritime Operations at the Royal Danish Defence College:
"If this is sabotage and it is an example of what we call hybrid warfare then the difficulty is always the attribution. It's very hard to pinpoint exactly who did it and why. And we always get a myriad of different explanations circulating on social media and things like that. But I think if we look at who would actually benefit from disturbances, more chaos on the gas market in Europe, I think there's basically only one actor right now that actually benefits from more uncertainty, and that is Russia. Russia that is using gas exactly as a pressure point to sort of put pressure on Europe to essentially give up the support for Ukraine, in the Ukraine war."
STORYLINE:
A series of unusual leaks on two natural gas pipelines running from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany have triggered concerns about possible sabotage.
It's overshadowed the inauguration Tuesday of a long-awaited pipeline that will bring Norwegian gas to Poland. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says she "cannot rule out" sabotage after three leaks were detected on Nord Stream 1 and 2.
Anders Puck Nielsen, a researcher with the Center for Maritime Operations at the Royal Danish Defence College, said if may be sabotage, or a kind of "hybrid warfare."
Currently the pipelines aren't bringing gas to Europe amid an energy standoff over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
However, gas still fills the lines.
No officials have presented evidence of what caused the problems, but in central Europe where distrust of Russia runs high, there were fears Moscow sabotaged its own infrastructure to signal all pipelines are vulnerable to attack.
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