Sun24 Press

Episode 6: Summer of 2022

The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline is one of the most consequential acts of sabotage in modern history, yet it remains unsolved.

The reports we have heard about it are usually either biased, superficial, or deflective.

This is the sixth podcast episode about the Nord Stream affair, the result of in-depth research from many sociopolitical angles. The podcast covers a timeline stretching from several months before the explosions to the events that followed on September 26, 2022.

Contents:
An exercise led by MARCOM (→ 1:00)
The Atlantic Future Forum (→ 02:49)
The former Google boss (→ 03:24)
Boris Johnson resigns (→ 05:19)
The turbines repair issues (→ 05:53)
Again Norway (→ 09:00)
The bailouts (→ 09:45)
UK's exclusive contract with Norway (→ 11:01)
The Marienburg declaration (→ 12:54)
Boris Johnson's submaritime departure (→ 13:54)
The new Norwegian ambassadors (→ 14:14)

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Episode 6

NordStream Refilled - Summer of 2022

00:00

Here information about the Atlantic Future Forum organisation and their meeting at the end of September 2022 aboard UK's aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth:
atlanticfutureforum.com
nsandrc.org/...

Here more info on the issues surrounding Eric Schmidt's resignation as Executive Chairman at Google's parent company Alphabet in December 2017:
businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt...
theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Here more info on Eric Schmidt's early 2015 suggestion of "spell-checkers for hate and harassment" on the Internet:
nbcnews.com/tech/internet...

Here more on one of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's last visits, a nuclear submarine:
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson...

Here more info on the new ambassador in Oslo who was inaugurated in August 2022:
handelskammer.blog/gespraech-mit-dr-detlef-waechter...
businessportal-norwegen.com/2022/08/26/...

Previous
Episode 5 - Springtime of 2022

Next
Episode 7 - September of 2022, Part 1

Transcript 

NordStream Refilled, The Sun 24 Press Podcast, Episode 6.

(Music) 

Martin: So now BALTOPS is almost over. It's way after June 17th, activities were still piling up. There was more to come.

Mortymer: On the 20th of June, UK was training its Royal Navy bomb and mine disposal divers in Lithuania on a small exercise. They were testing their equipment, cooperation with local partners. After that, there was another NATO exercise called Dynamic Mongoose. It was in the North Atlantic, it was in the North Sea. It was about testing capabilities to detect submarine threats. For example, Danish ships were participating, UK, United States and so on. It is annual anti-submarine warfare exercise and it's led by MARCOM, NATO's maritime command which is located in United Kingdom, in London, in Northwoods. It has headquarters just next to the Royal Navy and also next to it is headquarters of the organization which we mentioned shortly ago, JEF. This MARCOM-led advanced anti-submarine exercise, Dynamic Mongoose, it enabled NATO to sharpen their anti-submarine warfare skills in a very realistic environment. They were trying to find submarines and at the same time, submarines were trying to escape the detection. 

Martin: It's also still important to mention that this MARCOM exercise was overlapping for a few days with the Baltops exercise. There's another interesting incident: US's chief of naval operation, Mike Gilday, was meeting when the Baltops was about to end around June 17th, 18th. He was meeting in Kiel with his German counterpart, Admiral Jan Kaag. They were discussing transatlantic security issues. Now, a few days later, a week later, 10 days later, the same Mike Gilday would be in Washington DC again and he would then invite or meet his French counterpart, the chief of the French Navy called Admiral Pierre Vendier. 

Mortymer: On the 28th of June, new army chief, General Sanders, urged Britain to prepare for a total war with Russia and he said that British army must be prepared to engage in warfare at its most violent. 

Martin: Now, there were still even more organizations involved in channeling out the messages and the strategy of the United Kingdom. We talked about JEF, we of course know about NATO, the military exercises. Another forum organization kind of thing that we need to mention is the Atlantic and Pacific Future Forum. It comes across as a transatlantic organization. In fact, it's a UK influential forum where high ranking leaders from the United Kingdom would distribute messages and policy throughout literally the world. One individual who is part of this forum is a person called Eric Schmidt. Eric Schmidt, for those not familiar, he was in charge of Google. In 2017, I think during his first four years as US President Donald Trump, they clashed together. He stepped down rather quickly from his posts from Alphabet and was immediately embraced by certain government circles where he would still mingle and influence policy making. Now, his name appearing in this organization is really strange. This organization seems to be visited as well by UK government officials to express in a very aggressive way how important it is for Europe in general to cut from Russian gas supply. What's puzzling is this appearance again of Eric Schmidt. It hints towards already at this time, certain actors in the UK government were considering to have a global media campaign orchestrated early on right from the beginning. Many know that Google is the most dominating factor in disseminating internet based news to the world. Google is the place to go. Google defines what billions and billions of people will see as search results on their first page when they search for something. So it raises a red flag for me immediately. And I think that is what we saw particularly after the explosion in September of 2022. 

Mortymer: This 2022 version of the Atlantic Future Forum took place on the 28th to 29th of September, just two days after the Nord Stream explosions. And it happened abroad, UK's capital ship Queen Elizabeth, which was anchored in the New York Harbor. It brought together senior politicians, military and business leaders from both public and private sectors. 

Martin: July 2022 started with a big bang as well, which is when on July 7th, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK resigned. However, a successor was not found immediately as usual; normally within a couple of days or hours, they would have find a new Prime Minister. He was staying in this position for another almost two months. 

Mortymer: It was not just Johnson who resigned, but a lot of other people at the same time. There was a big reshuffling in the UK's government at this point. 

Martin: All in all, about how much 62 ministers stepped down. Many, many people in the oversight. 

Mortymer: And now let's give a few minutes for a talk about the Nord Stream 1 turbines, which were needing maintenance. On the 7th of July, German Energy and Economy Minister Habeck called Canada to release the Nord Stream turbines. Canada was fulfilling its obligations under UK-based sanctions and didn't want to release them. Complication is in fact that the office which was handling the paper was in the UK, in the Rolls-Royce office. Canada was actually following through the sanctions, so they had difficulty in deciding what to do. On the 10th of July, Canadian government announced that it will issue one time limited and revocable permit, except for a return of the turbines. Unfortunately, they didn't send all the accompanying papers, so Russia was hesitant to take them later on and required that this documentation will also be sent to them. There is another piece of evidence that Russia tried to fulfill its obligation and tried to be a reliable supplier. And it is the case from 12th of July 2022, when a judgment from the court came out. It was about Nord Stream 2, not Nord Stream 1, but a company Nord Stream 2 versus a parliament of the EU Council of the European Union. The case is known under the nickname unbundling case, which is about separation or legal separation between the pipeline operator and the exporter of the gas. What does it mean? Well, operator of the pipeline and the exporter of the gas have to be legally separated. Gazprom has challenged it and it seems that at this time they won the case at the highest European court. The case was admissible, so they could now challenge the decision of the European Parliament. It is important because they would not need to be incorporated Nord Stream 2 in Switzerland. 

(Music)

Martin: I need to add that I would disagree with your statement that Europe didn't want high energy prices. I think there's at least a fraction, if not 50% of the political sphere that was really much aware and wanted to begin a transition into a much more energy costly economic sphere. I think there was a lot of will and intent behind not only cutting the supply of gas and energy and substituting it immediately with the same low level price, but deliberately or on purpose taken into account that the energy prices in general will go up and that that circumstances might actually be good for small country economies. 

Mortymer: At the same time, Norway, the second largest gas supplier for Germany and the EU, was benefiting. They experienced the largest foreign trade surplus ever, but their export of the gas through pipelines were reaching their limits. They didn't have spare capacities which they could utilize. This caused issues in the United Kingdom because they thought that they were at the brink of the energy disaster and they were worried that Norway could cut the power. There were various European companies that faced themselves with the situation where the states and the government needed to bail out their own companies, their energy companies. The biggest change happened in June 2022 after EU announced partial sanction on Russian oil. That led to issues for the prices of natural gas market. The reaction was that they started to go substantially higher. It caused problems for energy utility companies in France, Germany and other states. The size was so big that it was two times of Lehman Brothers even in 2008, so the margin call was estimated to be 1.5 trillion euros. Companies were in such a bad situation that governments needed to step in and bail them out. For example, in July, the French government agreed to pay nearly 10 billion euros to fully nationalize the energy giant EDF. They acquired 16% of the company's shares. The similar happened in Germany with Uniper. Finland had quite a big share and there were discussions between the governments who will bail out and what will be the solution. Deliveries through Nord Stream 1 pipeline were running at a lower level in mid-August and German Chancellor Scholz met with his Norwegian counterpart and they agreed that Norway will continue to deliver at the maximum of what they can. 

Martin: So Norway did not want to have for a limited time a contract with the UK, but for 20 years. A couple of weeks before we see the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline, they planned an exclusive contract with Norway to secure for the next 20 years energy supply above market rates. 

Mortymer: In 2023 came a report that 30th of August 2022 United Kingdom was seeking 20-year long deal with Norway with surprisingly above market rates. The reason for it is that United Kingdom felt the energy insecurity, they wanted the Norwegian supplies for themselves, they were trying to offset domestic decline, they were also leveraging their imports. The suspicious information in this report is the above market rate price of the deal. Also the person who went to agree about it because he was not yet representing the UK government. 

Martin: Now this person, called Mr. Jacob Rees-Mogg, he was at that time the so-called Brexit Opportunities Minister and at the end of August he was driving around Scandinavian countries and other countries trying to secure energy deals. It's pretty scary and strange in what kind of role he was there visiting these kind of companies. Some articles claim that he was in his official role, Liz Truss' office later confirmed and spread to the world that he was rather more in a private role. What do you make out of it? 

Mortymer: Well, newspapers commented on it that he was looking to seal deals. There was confusion whether he met those companies in his role as a minister of opportunities or as a supporter of Liz Truss. UK's government departments refused to comment on it. On 30th of August there was the Marienburg Declaration, it was a sea energy summit which looked also at the security of the infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. The purpose of the Marienburg Declaration was to boost the energy security of the states which neighbor the Baltic Sea, to invest in renewable energy in the Baltic Sea and improve energy security in the area. Attendees of this Baltic Sea energy security were prime ministers of Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Finland. European Commission was represented by its president Ursula von der Leyen. 

Martin: Boris Johnson is about to finally leave his office after announcing the resignation two months ago almost, and one of his last actions is that he will visit a submarine base in England and makes a speech there, announces certain things, which is a bit unusual. At the time there were issues concerning a French-Australia contract with regard to building a couple of submarines, which was cancelled and transferred to the UK. One of the last actions of UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, again keep that in mind, was a visit of a nuclear submarine facility. On August 25th, there were three new ambassadors arriving in Oslo. The countries of Iceland, Italy and Germany presented brand new ambassadors. The German ambassador to Norway is pretty interesting because he was previously in a post at the German defense ministry. He was in charge of policy over there and distributed and published a couple of papers just beforehand. That's important to mention as well in terms of what is going to happen right now, in the next coming month of September.

(Music)

Speaker:
Mortymer - NordStream expert investigator
Martin - Investigative lead at Sun24 Press

Organization and realization:
Sun24 Press

NordStream Refilled

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