German investigators have focused their suspicions on Ukraine over the bombing of Russian gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea.
French media reported earlier this week that the investigation into the September 26 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 undersea pipelines of the southern coast of Sweden has followed the lead of mainstream media reports — quoting US 'intelligence sources' — that pointed the finger of blame at a small and mysterious group of individuals.
They rented a 50-foot (15-meter) sailing yacht christened the Andromeda from the northern German port of Rostock on September 6 2022, returning it on September 23.
Their voyage took them to the tiny Danish island of Christianso in the Ertholmene archipelago, whose population is less than 100 souls but which lies just 27 miles (44 km) from the site of the bombing.
The boat was reportedly not cleaned before it was hauled onto its winter dry-dock berth, and specially-trained police dogs sniffed out traces of explosives from the dining table through to the toilet seat.
Chemical analysis identified the explosives as HMX, also known as octogen, an advanced and very powerful high explosive 1.7 times more potent than TNT and of such high grade that it is also used to trigger the detonation of nuclear weapons by implosion.
The compound has a low sensitivity, making it safe to handle. Crucially, it is suitable for underwater blasting and was also detected in the destroyed pipe sections.
Commander Göran Swistek, a maritime security expert at the SWP think-tank, told a TV program that 40 kg of the explosive would have been needed to destroy each of the three pipelines.
"I assume that such a quantity of explosives would never have gone unnoticed by the intelligence services," Swistek said. "It therefore probably came from military stocks made available for this operation."
The identity of the yacht's crew and passengers remains a mystery. The yacht charter was booked through a travel agency named Feeria Lwowa, registered in the Polish capital Warsaw. The company does not have a website or even a phone number, and further investigation found no office or staff at the address given.
The manager of Feeria Lwowa was listed as 'Nataliia A' a 54-year-old resident of the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The rental was in the name of a man with a Moldovan identity card which turned out to be false. His real identity is believed to be 'Valeri K' from Dnepropetrovsk, a professional soldier in the Ukrainian 93rd Mechanized Brigade.
Le Figaro suggested that Valeri K took diving lessons along the way. But other media reports estimated that the job needed six divers plus a doctor on the boat. The pipelines lay some 44 fathoms (260 feet or 80 meters) below the surface, requiring expert scuba divers who would have had to make multiple stops to avoid suffering the bends since the boat could not have held a decompression chamber.
The bombing cut both the in-use NS1 pipeline and the new, higher-capacity NS2 which was yet to be commissioned following sanctions on Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine. The sabotage cut off one of Germany's main energy supply routes, triggering Europe-wide price rises and the shutdown of some manufacturing plants.
NATO powers attempted to pin the blame on Russia itself for the attack — despite one prominent Polish political figure thanking the US for the act of terrorism.
But award-winning veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a bombshell report detailing how the White House ordered a team of ex-US military divers to plant the explosives under cover of NATO naval exercises that June.
That narrative fits with US President Joe Biden's threat in early 2022 that if Russia sent troops to defend the Donetsk and Lugansk republics that "there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2, we will bring an end to it."
The journalist later ridiculed reports that shifted blame from the Biden administration to Kiev.