Sun24 Press

Episode 4: March & April 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 fourth 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:
We should mention Norway (→ 0:40)
A new pipeline (→ 01:14)
If we look at the UK (→ 02:43)
Russia didn't like these developments (→ 04:11)
We are in April 2022 (→ 05:28)
The sabotaged Ukraine peace negotioations (→ 07:14)
The two-sided green game (→ 10:05)
Another interesting incident in Norway (→ 11:27)
The US President and his Marines (→ 12:51)

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Episode 4

NordStream Refilled - March & April of 2022

00:00

Here an article which explains why the US Marines are the US President's preferred choice to be send into low-conflict zones:
wearethemighty.com/mighty-culture/us-marines...

Here a preview on the mentioned USS Kearsarge:
sun24.press/en/russia-projection-stream...

Previous
Episode 3 - Early 2022

Next
Episode 5 - Springtime of 2022

Transcript 

NordStream Refilled, The Sun 24 Press Podcast, Episode 4.

(Music) 

Martin: Which is a tremendous shift in the entire sphere, isn't it? And that goes along with the new government suddenly having a green foreign minister. We had a green economy minister, Robert Habeck, who was responsible for shaping the economic sphere. And these were people that were all in for an entire transition from 16 years Angela Merkel government, which propagated a rather cheap supply of energy and gas. We should maybe also mention Norway, which takes on a key role in the entire Nord Stream saga. Nord Stream is also a major supplier of energy to mainland Europe. 

Mortymer: Nord Stream main customer for gas is the UK, but of course it also sends a lot of gas to continental Europe. They also built a new pipeline from Norway, around Sweden, down to Denmark and to Poland. But that was marginal and it was built to supply mainly Polish customers. 

Martin: Coincidentally, however, this new pipeline opened up at about the same time I heard that the pipelines exploded.

Mortymer: Yes, it was 27th of September when the pipeline was opened. And one interesting issue about it is that the Norwegian prime minister was at the opening, but he canceled at the very last moment, three days before. 

Martin: Why, oh why ? Well, we will talk later about this.

Mortymer: Yes, we can, we can get to that when we'll be talking about the September, but he sent there instead of himself, the energy minister. So Norway is supplying Europe significant amounts, but they don't have the capacity. They don't have so much of the gas as Russia does. In spring 2022, Norway actually wanted to reduce its energy export to Europe because the high prices were causing troubles in Norway, but it was not just only in Norway. I mean, the whole Europe started to experience higher and higher energy prices. The more we were sanctioning Russian energy and it started in 2014, it ended up in the end of the spring 2022 and European energy utility companies were having quite big losses and there were margin calls. States had to step in here in Finland, in Germany, in other countries as well. They bailed them out. The situation was not really nice. But if you look at the United Kingdom in early March, because we are now speaking about March, they realized while they were fixing their own energy security strategy, that as Boris Johnson said on 7th of March, that we can't close down Russian oil and gas overnight. We need to find a substitute supply. In March and later on, he started to fly all over in Middle East. He is developing new energy supply strategy for UK and for allies as well. Boris Johnson also was on the forefront of rejecting solutions, diplomatic solutions, peaceful solutions. In March he flew several times to Ukraine. There are also these news about his involvement in Ukraine, rejecting the peace process in Istanbul. Truss made several visits to Baltic states. She spoke in Netherlands on the 24th of March, how we need to continue firmly and swiftly and cripple the economic power of Russia and how we need to impose the sanctions and stop the hydrocarbons. The same way she spoke with von der Leyen the next day on the 25th, how we need to move away from reliance of Russian hydrocarbons. On the 1st of April, she did the same with Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, how we will work together to eliminate the dependency on Russian energy. Russia didn't like, of course, these developments, they didn't like the sanctions, but in summer, in early September, Russia did stop, first partially, then fully, transport of the gas through Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Martin: So Russia did not use in March 2022, retortion measures that they were legally, as I understood it, fully entitled to. Instead, later we saw these turbine issues and even more later into the fall of 2022, they stopped entirely the flow of gas on Nord Stream 1. Were there any more important things that happened in March 2022? 

Mortymer: Yes, there were suggestions from government, especially in the UK and also in the other countries that companies must leave. They are recommended to leave the Russian market as soon as possible. 

Martin: So on March 9th, there's another important meeting in the US Senate taking place, the Foreign Affairs Committee, where Victoria Nuland, that we talked about before in the earlier episode, she stated that she thinks, she believes that Nord Stream 2 is now dead. And I quote, "I don't think it will ever be revived". So as early as March, we hear talks already that the entire gas pipeline will never be operational again. Now we are already almost in April of 2022, which is an interesting month because we saw Olaf Scholz visiting the UK, visiting the Prime Minister over there. There was some interaction with Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and some other important developments. 

Mortymer: Let's go to see some of their actions. They visit Italy, they visited Baltic States, they decided that fracking in the UK is possible. So they wanted to improve the energy situation in the UK, but also become a hub for future LNG. In the update for UK's energy security, it's a strategic paper on the 7th of April. It is mentioned that it's how crucial it is that we work with allies and we maintain the stable energy markets and prices. In one section, it is really mentioned that the UK is positioning themselves as a key entry point for non-Russian supplies of gas. 

Martin: So the UK wanted more or less to become a replacement for Russia in terms of providing energy to Europe ?

Mortymer: Yes, the UK in their strategy mentions that they are aiming for zero Russian oil and coal imports. They suggested their companies to divest from Russia. They suggested their companies to stop all cooperations, including the insurance companies, companies in London providing technical support roles, IT and so on. The UK expelled Russian banks from Swift, plus of course other countries as well. It was not just UK, but the UK has been the organizer, the one who was, who was leading always. 

Martin: And then on April 8th, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz flew into Downing Street to London to discuss how they would further strengthen sanctions. Important to mention is that Olaf Scholz was not only welcomed by the prime minister there, but they had already also intensive talks with, of course, Liz Truss at the time. A day after Olaf Scholz visited London, Boris Johnson flies directly to Ukraine and discusses there with Zelensky how to strengthen furthermore the capability of Ukraine to respond to the Russian invasion. At the same time, there were peace negotiations going on in Istanbul. And I believe that this was the moment when the suggestions about a peace in Ukraine were sabotaged by Boris Johnson directly. 

Mortymer: He just said, let's just fight. Expelling Russian banks from the Swift system, banking system, had a result for the payment for all gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was still buzzing and delivering at 100% of the capacity. According to long-term contracts, Russia was supposed to deliver the gas for years. The problem arose when the payments became impossible to be paid, but a workaround has been found through the Gazprom subsidiary bank in Switzerland, and Mr. Habeck suggested a way how to do it. 

Martin: Kind of a surprise for many, because the Green Minister Habeck was one of the most aggressive supporters of cutting Russia from gas supply to Germany. But suddenly on April 20th, they emit the message that all is more or less fine. Companies that would buy the gas from German Nord Stream or the Swiss Nord Stream AG would still be okay if they would just pay in euros and dollars, which would then be converted into rubles and arrive. So it was a kind of a one-step-forward, two-step-back decision at that moment, or at least statements at the moment. And I think this is related to pure legal issues, because if at that moment in April of 2022, the German government would halt and suspend immediately the payments for these gas supplies, they would have legal ramification of tremendous proportions. And I think the surprise statement of Robert Habeck, again, Green Minister, very much for a green transition, cutting Russia off the gas chain, must be seen in that light. 

(Music)

Martin: Now Annalena Baerbock, who was already Foreign Minister at the time, mentioned already at the same day that for the next shorter-term prospects, Germany will definitely halt and suspend the Nord Stream pipeline. So it's a two-sided game. They were playing with Habeck on the one side, saying everything was okay, we're not going to run compensation payments into the billions by pushing out the statements over here. We're still fine, we can curb the sanctions. And at the same time, his counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, making sure and channeling to its allies that it's going to end anyway. Now, a few weeks later, another surprising statement came out of Germany, pretty much indicative of the dynamics within the coalition, the red-green-yellow coalition that we had, the so-called traffic light. Suddenly the Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, he stated on April 20th: "We have to be patient".

Mortymer: Germany was at the time buying around 25% of its oil and 40% of its gas from Russia, and it is not so easy to change over the night. Contracts are longer. Getting new ones takes time. Agreeing about with the new suppliers takes time as well. And it's not as easy as for UK, which did not have such a big reliance. I think they were at something like 8%.

Martin: Now at the end of April, there was another interesting development that happened in Norway. There was the first British nuclear submarine that was docking over there. Can you explain a little bit more what happened there?

Mortymer: UK's nuclear submarine was docking in Tromsø on the 29th of April, 2022. It was visited by the British Defense Minister, Ben Wallace, from the conservative party. He came there to talk to his Norwegian counterparts to ensure the new UK's defense strategy for the Arctic region. At the same place, at the same time, there was also the American ambitious assault ship USS Kearsarge, which is, by some people believe, to play a role in NordStream. During this time, the Diving and Threat Exploitation Group, DTXG, based in Clyde, in Faslane in the UK, has been training there. 

Martin: Training in Norway as well? 

Mortymer: In Tromsø. They were providing the support for the submarine. The thing is, it's a little bit suspicious that they are training in Norway. Norway has a lot of pipelines and similar conditions as the Baltic Sea. 

Martin: It's important maybe also to mention for our listeners that the USS Kearsarge that you just mentioned plays a much bigger role in September 2022. We will be discussing it in detail in the further coming episodes. But this ship is especially one of the largest ships that the US military has, and it's loaded with US Marines. Now, US Marines are the preferred choice of soldiers to be sent into foreign conflict zones directly by the order of the US President. The US President doesn't need to have a mandate from the US Congress or the US Senate. It can execute right away directly its foreign policy with explicitly these US Marines, and they were in large numbers on this carrier group, this USS Kearsarge. When the Kearsarge is going somewhere, sailing somewhere, it's never going to go alone. It has various support ships. Usually there's a lot of planes and helicopters that are going along with it. So it was more than just one boat arriving in Norway, there was certainly a larger fleet docking there in Tromsø.

(Music)

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

Organization and realization:
Sun24 Press

NordStream Refilled

Episode 4

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