Nord Stream attacks: New list from Poland poses a mystery | According to information from ARD, SZ and “Zeit”, Poland has apparently handed over a list of Russian names to Germany – is Moscow behind the Nord Stream pipeline explosions after all? Berlin is said to remain sceptical.
by GirasoleDE
14 comments
>There were only a few days left until the anniversary of the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines. There was still no arrest warrant, the investigation against unknown persons was still ongoing. Several leads pointed to people in Ukraine. But they did not have much more to go on. Then suddenly, as if out of nowhere, Polish secret service agents apparently sent Germany a list of names – including several Russian ones. Was everything different now?
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>In September, the German security authorities set about checking and assessing the new information, as ARD, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) and “Zeit” have learned. Poland apparently reported that they had identified parts of the crew on board a yacht that security authorities linked to the attack.
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>Several men who are said to have been at least partly on the sailing yacht “Andromeda” would have Russian citizenship. The Polish secret service also speculated that several persons might have connections to the Russian military intelligence service.
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>According to the research, the assessment of the German officials, on the other hand, was quick: be careful with this list. Basically, it does not change the results of the investigation so far, which continue to point in the direction of Ukraine.
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>At the weekend, the newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” had first reported on the list. The document is in the possession of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and other security agencies, the newspaper reported. German investigators would view the information with caution – they suspect Polish disinformation behind it in the current election campaign.
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>It is known that Poland and Germany often interpret the results of the investigations into the sabotage differently. The “Andromeda” is at the centre of this. Berlin is convinced that the boat played a role in the attacks: In mid-September, Federal Prosecutor General Peter Frank had told the Bundestag that investigators believed the ship had had something to do with carrying out the crime.
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>However, they had not yet made much progress in identifying the crew – the skipper, for example, had presented a forged Bulgarian passport with the name “Mihail Popov”.
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>For Warsaw, on the other hand, the ship does not play a major role, according to official statements. Polish State Secretary Stanisław Żaryn, responsible for the coordination of his country’s intelligence services, told ARD, SZ and “Zeit” a few weeks ago that Poland had “found no traces of this yacht’s involvement in the events”. The trip had had a “purely touristic character”.
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>When the crew was inspected by Polish authorities in September 2022 in the port of Kołobrzeg (Kolberg), he said, no one “who had the slightest bit of military or sabotage-related training” stood out. He did not say on what he based these findings. Żaryn also said the sabotage would most likely fit Russia.
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>German investigators are sceptical about the statements from the neighbouring country. At a meeting with Polish colleagues in May, distrust is said to have been high. One reason: The German officials suspect that the suspicious crew of the sailing boat was not only checked during the stop in the harbour of Kołobrzeg, but also recorded on video. So far, however, the Germans are said not to have received any such recordings.
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>In investigative circles and in the Federal Government, it is therefore considered possible that the list now transmitted by Poland is aimed at emphasising a Russian lead. As ARD, SZ and “Zeit” have learned, Polish intelligence officers are said to have given the impression in the course of the transmission of the list with the Russian names that, despite the new indications in the direction of Russia, they continue to assume that the preparation of the sabotage was probably carried out by Ukrainians.
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>German officials are obviously sceptical about the list because they had already known and checked several of the pieces of information that have now been submitted – without making any decisive progress in the investigation. Even if Russians had been on board the yacht, this would hardly allow any conclusions to be drawn about who ordered the attack. The theory that the attack may have been carried out under a false flag is still not ruled out.
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>The Russian authorities have repeatedly pointed to a foiled attack on the Turkstream pipelines a few days before the Nord Stream explosions. A man in charge of the execution had been arrested at the time – a Russian recruited by the Ukrainian secret service. However, Russia has not yet provided any evidence of this when asked.
*Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)*
More reporting:
https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/plus247860908/Nord-Stream-Anschlaege-Polen-uebermittelt-brisantes-Dokument.html (paywall)
https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2023-10/nord-stream-pipelines-explosion-polen-russland-andromeda
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/nord-stream-polen-ukraine-explosion-1.6280701
Ridicules, our Russian friends would never do something like this. Quoting the German foreign ministry.
hot potato handover lvl up. LOL!
Candidates for Nobel Peace Prize
Ah – just like we all suspected
It was gazprom so they didn’t have to pay contractual penalties by causing a force majeure.
Of course it has been Russia behind it, it always was. The German government has been trying to find any, any, narrative or theory that will take the blame away from Russia because they have been terrified of the idea that, if proven to be Russia, the EU and/or NATO may be forced to retaliate on a manner much greater than slapping half baked, mildly effective economic sanctions.
Its important to note that the german investigators are somewhat sceptical about this, as they suspect that, if the polish authorities actually controlled the boat, video material should exist (according to the article).
Yes German media, it was definitely the sailboat with Ukrainians on board. Stick with the story and disregard this total coincidence of Russian boats with capabilities being close to nord stream days before the incident https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65461401.amp
Hybrid war and plausible deniability. My personal bet is on the US, as they hated NordStream even before the war. Also it has been successful supplying LNG to Europe, at a huge profit.
Follow the money.
We’re all still sceptical of Berlin, frankly.
Does it even matter?
The pipelines were already closed down for months with no prospect of being reopened when they were bombed.
Really? WGAF!?
After the Seymour Hersh article, I’m confident it was Russia. His article with unanimous sources reads like Russian propaganda.