In the latest episode of ‘The OSINT Bunker’ podcast, the panel speaks to Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK), an independent Danish researcher and Nordstream pipeline attack timeline expert, on the theories behind who was responsible.

In this discussion, Oliver Alexander cites the lack of evidence for Russian theories in a blame game involving multiple conflicting narratives, with inconsistencies and unanswered questions muddling the situation further.

“And I mean, also with the Russians, I mean, they started off by blaming the Anglo Saxons, and I think it was the Swedes that were involved. And then they stated that they had text messages from Liz Truss that proved that she was behind it. And then now they’re suddenly all on board, the Seymour Hersh narrative, yet, the entirety of the entire like Russian state intelligence apparatus can provide not one single piece of evidence pointing at the US, which you’d think if they didn’t even have just the slightest bit of evidence that could, you know, somehow kind of backup Seymour Hersh, his story would be massive, but they have nothing, there’s nothing.

It’s funny, because there’s just so many conflicting narratives. Everyone says that another person did this. And no one really wants to blame anyone. Exactly. It’s kind of like this weird kind of semi-blame game. There’s also because there are so many. Every theory seems to have at least one or two major holes in it, because there are so many kinds of unanswered questions like you have the Nord Stream to leak where only one of the pipelines was damaged, and that was damaged 80 kilometres away from the other ones, which are all kind of closely connected. And then that happened 17 hours before and it’s just all it’s like, nothing can really make all the things add up.”

Click here to listen to the rest.

Listen on Spotify.

And on RSS.

What is the OSINT Bunker?

The OSINT Bunker is a defence and security-based podcast aimed at expanding people’s knowledge of the geopolitical landscape using open-source intelligence. It fills a niche that most people (most people reading this anyway) have for up-to-date, accurate and balanced information on ongoing conflicts.

What is OSINT? For those who don’t know, OSINT stands for open-source intelligence, which refers to any information gathered from public sources about an organisation, event, individual etc. In practice, that tends to mean information found on the internet, but technically any public information falls into the category of OSINT, whether it’s books or reports in a public library, articles in a newspaper or statements in a press release.

Episodes typically cover the UK and international defence matters.

You can listen here or find the podcast on most audio streaming platforms, including Spotify and TuneIn. We’ve also included a link to all the episodes on this page if that’s easier for you.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

57 COMMENTS

  2. You know when a name like Lizz Truss comes up, you know it’s B.S. They should have gone with NordVPN to bypass any restrictions. lol

  5. The truth is, not one Russian narrative holds up to any scrutiny. Whether it’s bio labs, nuclear weapons, MH17, nazis, Novichok, Polonium, civilian targeting etc. The list is virtually endless. Along with their shills, they are comically inept bullshitters.

    • Well the US did literally say they would not let it happen:
      Biden:
      “If Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine, again, then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said at a joint press conference with Scholz. “We will bring an end to it.”
      “But how will you do that exactly, since the project and control of the project is within Germany’s control?” asked Andrea Shalal of Reuters, who had posed the original question to Biden about Nord Stream.
      “We will, I promise you, we’ll be able to do it,” Biden replied.

      • I think blowing a couple of holes in it is way way below the “we will end the Nord Stream pipeline” bar…the US has far better and more potential leavers that a bit of petty sabotage.

      • By no longer importing Russian gas into Germany, that effectively ended NS. Blowing up the pipeline was typical Russian grey zone activity mixed with their usual maskirovka.

      • The whole Biden thing blowing it up is ridiculous.
        What he said was to act as a deterrent against Russia invading. Exactly what he said would happen if Russia invaded happened. Nord stream 2 didn’t go online.
        Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to stop Russia.
        The most likely thing is some device was sent through the pipelines. Perhaps it was meant to go all the way through and blow up at Germany’s end but didn’t make it.
        Ukraine did it I don’t think was possible. It hasn’t blown up pipelines on there own territory.
        So who else could get a boat into the Baltic and put devices on both pipelines. Who would actually want to? Nobody really.

        • I was just playing the devils advocate. i honestly dont believe it was them, but i wouldn’t be surprised. it happened at the time Germany was really not taking the invasion as seriously as the rest of us (US, UK blatics/poland ect). and honestly it wasn’t even determined the pipeline would remain unsused especially with Germanys recent policy decisions being short-sighted or naive. Us intel agencies likely had huge swathe of plans to prevent it happen including sabotage. Also not unheard of for those agencies to go a bit rogue and not trust the germans so just did it with or without presidential approval. pretty easy to just blame anyone and get away with it. Could be ukranian groups, but russia IMO has the least reason of any nation to blow it up seeing as they already and still have pipelines flowing into europe, they would’ve removed one of their only bargaining chips. (another reason for US to do it)

          • I don’t know who did it.
            It does sound a bit crazy for the Russians to blow it up, but at the same time I can’t think who else has the ability and access to do it.
            I don’t know enough about the topic to give a proper answer.

      • Doh, it obviously meant that:
        • the NordStream business would end because Europe would stop buying gas from Russia, which also meant
        • NordStream 2, it’s bigger newer brother would never go live.

        Both these things were in process BEFORE the pipeline.

        The pipelines destruction benefitted Russia the most.
        • Because of the sanctions the value of the pipelines were trending to purely scrap only anyway.
        • It occurred in Autumn. Russia was hoping that it would freeze Europe into submission over the Winter. However had it just stopped pumping gas it would have been renegading on its outstanding contracts, and financially liable. The pipelines destruction solved that dilemma.

  7. Hand on heart-It wasn’t me.

    Russia tries to swamp the media with a mutitide of theories to disguise its actions. We give them too much respect allowing them to deter us from helping Ukraine & standing up to them far stronger, when what would work best is strong, firm push-back.

  9. Who ever it was did us all a favour, now we don’t have to worry about German business wanting to turn the cheap gas back on.

    Come to think of it, maybe it was Greta. She lives near by and she is very upset about the German governments constant do as we say not as we do when it comes to climate change, CO2 and energy policy.

    😀

  10. It was the Atlantean’s…fighting of the invasion of the land lovers into their undersea domain….not really it was most likely the Russians…who did after a
    all leave a weapon of mass destruction hanging around in Salisbury….and have been proven to lie about literally everything….invading a sovereign country…no we will not do that…invaded Ukraine no we have not done that….

  14. I think I may have a plausible theory. After WW2 shed loads of Munitions, Chemicals and other nastiest were dumped in the Baltic
    I think that it is all down to the Western Allies.
    Technology was marching on and with the invention of the much more advanced FUBA the infamous GREMLINS were obsolete.
    Now where better place to safely dump them than in the Baltic where no one would ever disturb them because nothing ever happened in the Baltic. Then some Muppet built a pipeline right next door and the pesky blighters got busy.
    Makes sense ?

  16. Completely O/T but I suggest that any of you guys interested in the F-35 and its engine click over to the Drive/Warzone and read about Wednesday’s session in committee in Congress where the very serious issues were laid bare.

    L-M knew right at the start they had a problem and know now there is a Block 4 problem. Basically the engine has to be run harder than specified to generate the necessary power and cooling which seriously effects its life and availability.

    • Having read the article, while concerning, the facts reported are somewhat different to what you claim. But then we know from your previous posts that your grasp on reality is somewhat tenuous.

      • I mean for overhauls to be needed at 1600 hours instead of 2000 it’s hardly devastating. How many years is that going to be. Lots I assume.
        I think the upgrades are going to fix issues anyway.

        • Well NATO could probably destroy the entire Russian military in a week, so they only need 168 hours to serve their purpose. Seems they have lots of hours spare hours leftover for practice and training. 😏

        • Overhaul on a commercial jet engine takes us a minimum 84 days from induction to release (serviceable) though the usual time relates to spare part availablity and decision making time by the owners, so probably less decision time in a military context. So about six months for full confidence in return to service.
          That’s going to make a difference to aircraft serviceability rates.
          Pilot: Full military thrust!
          MRO: Try again six months later…

          • Yes but as with commercial, if it’s only the engine that need the overhaul and no other work needed, you fit a spare and release the aircraft. It’s a serviceability issue but can be solved relatively easily by purchasing more power units for the fleet.

          • Let’s hope that HM Treasury understand the relationship between deterrence, serviceability and investment..

  18. A US SEAL Team must be high on the suspect list. Underwater demolitions is the frogman’s speciality. Sleepy joe bragged about not permitting it to function. They could conduct such a mission direct from POTUS keeping it off the books and very quiet. But my guess is on a Ukrainian militia faction, sponsored by one of their energy oligarchs. Follow the money.
    The only people who appear to be unlikely candidates are the Russian government. It’s their pipeline and they stand to loose the investment and potential future revenues.
    We will just have to wait and see who eventually owns up.

    • It’s was clearly the Russians.

      • The pipeline had no potential future revenues as Europe is ending its dependence on Russian gas. The only value the pipelines had was as scrap… or what could be scammed from its insurers. Plenty of dodgy landlords have torched their own properties for the insurance.

      • The attacks occurred in September. Putin was hoping to freeze Europe into rolling back its sanctions over the winter. But cutting exports through the pipelines would have seen Gazprom in breach of its contractual obligations and financial liable. A terrorist attack let Gazprom off the hook by claiming force majeure and saw Putin’s plan to freeze europe advanced.

      • If it has been the Navy Seals, they would have done a far, far better job of it.

    • There is an investigative journalist that has broken a lot of major cover-up stories that reported the same. The question though to me is why, what is in it for the US for doing it, the world had already turned against Russia, just seems pointless.

      • The guy posing as a US president wanted it to happen. Watch for yourself. The gloating glee in his eyes as he makes the promise to end NordSteam 2 https://www.newsweek.com/video-biden-saying-end-nord-stream-resurfaces-after-pipeline-leak-1747005

        As long as that pipeline remained intact, it could be used to supply gas in the future. Germany could still capitulate and buy cheap gas for its people, from Russia. But not anymore! For whatever reason be it personal financial gain or family involvement with the Ukrainian oligarchs. The current US administration is determined to clash with Russia.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here