US legacy media has added another layer of obfuscation and complexity to the Nord Stream cover story attempting to take the heat off Washington to blame Ukraine for the September 2022 attacks.
Building on reports from earlier this year that an enigmatic “pro-Ukrainian group” rented a sailboat to carry out the attacks, released after Sy Hersh’s bombshell reporting implicating the US Navy for the acts of terrorism, the Washington Post story Saturday indicated that Ukrainian special operations forces colonel Roman Chervinsky coordinated the “brazen sabotage operation.”
Chervinsky, WaPo’s story goes, “was the coordinator of the Nord Stream operation,” “managing logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines.”
The twist, coming amid the very public spat between Zaluzhny and President Volodymyr Zelensky over the commander’s comments earlier this month that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had reached a “stalemate,” differs radically from previous MSM reporting on the Nord Stream attacks, which stressed that the alleged Ukrainian perpetrators had no affiliation whatsoever to Ukraine’s government or military.
Sources cited by WaPo in its Saturday piece similarly stressed that “the Nord Stream operation was designed to keep Zelensky out of the loop.”
Russian officials haven’t bought the new take on the story, with Duma lawmaker Alexey Chepa characterizing the newspaper’s story as an attempt by the United States and NATO to whitewash their own culpability for the Nord Stream attacks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the report's suggestion that Zelensky was kept out of the loop should be "a very alarming sign" not only for Russia, but for the collective West as well. "Because if the Kiev regime no longer controls the situation in the country, this is alarming and should also be taken account."
‘Silly Beyond Belief’
Retired CIA intelligence officer and former State Department official Larry Johnson also dismisses the new take on the ‘Ukraine did Nord Stream’ story, stressing that it must be viewed using a much broader lens.
“Since the Washington Post normally is the preferred mouthpiece of the CIA, you have to take this as an example of CIA propaganda to identify this individual, who has zero experience in underwater demolition operations, as sort of the mastermind of an underwater demolition operation, as just silly beyond belief,” Johnson told Sputnik.
“All of this has to be viewed in the context of the growing conflict between General Zaluzhny and President Zelensky,” Johnson emphasized. “He basically has been seen as a competitor to Zelensky. The fact that he was featured in The Economist to me indicates that this is British intelligence signaling that they think this Zaluzhny is their boy. And the CIA is pushing back, saying ‘no, no, no, it’s got to be Zelensky.’ So Chervinsky is just a sideshow. When you look at the picture here, there’s nothing at all about him that would suggest an operative with any kind of competence.”
Attempts by Washington to deflect the blame for the Nord Stream attacks onto Ukraine makes sense in the context of Kiev’s gradual “abandonment” by the Biden administration, Johnson believes.
“This has happened to Afghanistan. It happened in Vietnam. It’s going to happen to Kiev. They’re not winning the war. The United States is preoccupied with the war in Israel. And the United States does not have the money nor the weapons to keep Ukraine in the fight. So we’re looking for exit strategies. And right now the question is whether or not Zelensky will survive. Will he be replaced by Zaluzhny? Will there be a military coup? I think that we’re into that territory now because Ukraine has experienced absolutely zero success on the battlefield,” the observer explained.
Asked about Germany’s position on the Nord Stream drama –which implicates Washington, Kiev, or both directly in attacks on German energy infrastructure, Johnson said Berlin’s response to date has been to provide Ukraine with more weapons and money instead of looking out for its interests.
“Does that make sense? No. This is a policy that’s not logical. There is no logic here. We’re dealing with people who are insane…Because if Germany was actually looking out for Germany’s interests and they accepted this report as true, they should immediately suspend relations and dealings with Ukraine, and declare Ukraine as an enemy of the German people. But they’re not going to do that.” Instead, he noted, Berlin continues “to portray Russia as their enemy.”
“Except, you know, we now know that [German Chancellor] Olaf Scholz is talking about talks with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. So it’s a policy in disarray because they’re watching. They’re all bent on the fact that United States would be in this to the end and that the United States’ military might and economic clout would be sufficient to bring victory to Ukraine. And they now realize that’s fool’s gold. It’s not going to happen,” Johnson summed up.