As NATO has rushed to funnel weapons and money to Ukraine to fight Russia, the conflict has turned into a proxy war that increasingly threatens to become global, bringing nuclear weapons states into direct conflict for the first time - a situation decades of careful diplomacy aimed to avoid, lest it lead to the annihilation of the human race.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed the Ukrainian military won’t be allowed to use the company’s Starlink internet satellites for combat purposes for fear of being an accomplice to the start of World War III.
Musk gave the confirmation amid an exchange on Twitter, which he also bought last year, with former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.
After Kelly tagged him in a post and pleaded with him to “restore the full functionality of your Starlink satellites” in Ukraine, Musk said the company would do no such thing.
“Starlink is the communication backbone of Ukraine, especially at the front lines, where almost all other internet connectivity has been destroyed,” he replied. “But we will not enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3.”
In reply to another Twitter user who pointed out that Starlink actually hasn’t cut off its service in Ukraine, Musk added that “SpaceX commercial terminals, like other commercial products, are meant for private use, not military, but we have not exercised our right to turn them off.”
“We’re trying hard to do the right thing, where the 'right thing' is an extremely difficult moral question,” he added.
Musk’s comments come after SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told reporters that Starlink “was never intended to be weaponized.”
“Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement,” Shotwell said. She later added that “there are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that. There are things that we can do, and have done.”
Indeed, numerous media reports have exposed the Ukrainian military’s extensive use of Starlink in the conflict, including a naval drone found near the Russian port of Sevastopol with a Starlink antenna lashed to its stern.
Starlink is a network of more than 3,500 low Earth orbit satellites offering high-speed internet access. SpaceX started launching them in 2019 and it presently provides service in 48 countries. Included in its terms of use is the clause: “Starlink is not designed or intended for use with or in offensive or defensive weaponry or other comparable end-uses.”
In response to news that Kiev was violating these terms, Musk moved last year to stop offering the service for free in Ukraine, and pressured the Pentagon to pick up the bill. The move also came after Musk offered his thoughts on how to end the conflict through negotiations and concessions, and Kiev’s envoy to Warsaw, Andrij Melnyk, told him to “f**k off.”
“We’re just following his recommendation,” Musk quipped to one reporter who protested the decision.
Saudi Arabia is interested in joining the BRICS group of the world’s five major developing economies, as well the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, according to Russia's Ambassador to the kingdom, Sergey Kozlov.
The five BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – currently account for more than 40% of the world’s population and nearly a quarter of global GDP. Meanwhile, the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security bloc, includes major powers like India in its ranks.
“As part of the diversification of the kingdom's foreign policy, Saudi Arabia is keen to join such international associations as the SCO and BRICS,” Kozlov said on Sunday in an interview with RIA Novosti.
According to the ambassador, the possibility of the Gulf nation’s membership in the SCO is being actively discussed, while the idea of joining BRICS is under consideration.
“In general, the willingness of [our] Saudi partners to become an integrated part of these multilateral organizations, primarily the SCO, seems to have a good prospect,” Kozlov said.
Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “more than a dozen” nations had expressed interest in entering the BRICS group.
Algeria, Argentina, and Iran have reportedly asked to join BRICS, while Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay are members of its New Development Bank. Argentina's potential accession is supported by China according to several sources.
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, the UAE, Venezuela and Zimbabwe have also shown interest in becoming BRICS members.
In October 27, 2022, amidst the growing tension between the US and Saudi Arabia over the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, the Gulf nation has conveyed its interest to join the BRICS Bloc. Last week, President Cyril Ramposa of South Africa during his visit to Riyadh announced that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expressed the kingdom’s desire to join the BRICS. There are other countries like Turkey, Egypt among others who have expressed their interest to join the grouping, he told the media persons in that country.
The issue of expansion of the bloc of emerging economies will be on the agenda of the BRICS Summit scheduled to take place in South Africa under its presidency in 2023.
“The case of Saudi Arabia, however, is both curious and interesting. Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a close ally of the US in West Asia. But in the last few months, the relationship has undergone a roller-coaster ride. During his electoral campaign, President Biden projected Saudi Arabia as a pariah states due to Prince Salman’s alleged involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist. After coming to power, however, he changed his course and visited Saudi Arabia. This visit was intended to ensure the low price of oil to punish Russia,”
As reported earlier, South American nation Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping about joining the group. Iran too has sent in its request to join. Both countries have already applied for the membership of the bloc earlier this year in June. The other countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt are set to formally apply for the membership of BRICS.
BRICS represents more than 40 percent of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP and if it is expanded it will help in bolstering the BRICS bloc’s global influence. At the BRICS summit this year, according to reports quoting Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, many countries have expressed their interest to join the bloc of emerging markets. And stated that China actively supports the member countries to start the expansion process for BRICS Plus Cooperation. At the 14th summit this year the members talked about the procedure and the standards for the expansion.
The idea of linking under one bloc the major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China first emerged in 2001, when Goldman Sachs coined the acronym BRICs to describe the potential of the four countries to become a powerful economic bloc in the world economy. In June 2009, Brazil, Russia, India, and China formally emerged as a global market force during the first BRIC summit held in Russia, with South Africa joining the bloc a year later.
In subsequent years, BRICS foreign ministers met to advance the bloc’s policy goals. The momentum to expand the bloc arrived in June 2017, when China proposed more inclusiveness. In September 2017, China proceeded to invite other nations to join the bloc through a “BRICS Plus” cooperation model at the BRICS Summit in Xiamen, and donated reserve funds to the new bloc through the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), which was formed in July 2014.
The expansion of BRICS promises to substantially increase the bloc’s wealth, which currently contributes to 24% of the world’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) output – US$24.44 trillion in 2021 – while holding 16% of world trade and 29.3% of the world’s total land surface.
The five new members expected to join the bloc in 2023 are Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. BRICS Plus, a framework designed to include new countries in the BRICS dialogue with a view to promoting multilateralism and multiculturalism, also aims to integrate the Gulf region into its evolving global, regional and sub-regional economic structures. Consequently, members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar – have embarked on a new era of ties with the BRICS countries, shaped by a desire to buffer their economies in a conflict-prone world.
This need to build alternative global economic, political, and security structures through a BRICS Plus-GCC partnership is expected to encourage collaboration in a host of sectors and promote geopolitical convergence.
Overview of BRICS–GCC relations
The GCC states enjoy a long history of engagement with BRICS countries since at least the global financial crisis of 2008. Before the crisis, the GCC states had benefitted from the prospect of better integration into global markets, aided by a surge in demand for their rich energy markets. Oil and gas windfalls led to budget surpluses that soared to 23% of regional GDP in 2006. Economic growth that had stagnated in previous years reached an estimated 7%, double the 3.5% average for 1990-2002, when the GCC region was relatively isolated from global markets except in the energy sector.
In an effort to rebound from the global financial crisis, the GCC states sought to expand their markets beyond the developed world. The GCC tilt toward new markets in the Global South may have served as an engine for economic growth. High energy outputs enabled the GCC outreach to BRICS in this period, especially to China when it launched the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative in 2013. Combined with a Silk Road fund of US$40 billion and additional funding from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the OBOR initiative ensured the BRICS economies’ energy dependency on the GCC.
The emerging China-GCC market-oriented security partnership expanded to secure stability in the Indian Ocean and in the Gulf waterway, by promising better economic prospects and smoother maritime connectivity to the emerging economies of Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The need for energy security through an evolving China-GCC partnership, along with the growing presence of BRICS countries in local GCC markets, pointed to a mutual desire to widen spheres of influence across continents, and an appetite for larger projects, multilateralism, innovation, private sector growth, and wealth generation.
On February 4, the United States shot down what it claimed was a Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean. China insists the airship was engaged in scientific research and had been accidentally blown off course.
US-made balloons have been detected carrying out incursions into China's airspace at least 10 times since January 2022, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.
“It is nothing rare for US balloons to illegally enter other country’s airspace... The US needs to reflect upon its own behavior, instead of slandering, smearing and provoking confrontation," the ministry's spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, stated at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Monday.
In response to the US rhetoric following the recent balloon incident, the spokesman indicated that China reserved the right to "take necessary means to deal with relevant incidents.”
The fact that a Chinese civilian unmanned airship carried out an unintended incursion into US airspace was due to unavoidable accidental circumstances, Wang Wenbin added. The shooting down of the balloon, which China insists was engaged in scientific research but fell victim to high winds, was denounced by the ministry as indiscriminate use of force.
As for the US, it was described by the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson as the world's largest repeat offender when it came to spying and indiscriminate use of surveillance. Washington has repeatedly sent aircraft and warships to carry out reconnaissance on China, with 64 flights in the South China Sea in January this year alone, the ministry's spokesperson underscored, adding that this seriously jeopardizes China's national security, while also undermining regional peace and stability.
China's response to US high-altitude balloons illegally flying over Chinese airspace was at all times "responsible and professional," Wang said.
The balloon that ignited the latest row was first spotted near Alaska before traveling over Canada and eventually being downed off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. The United States delayed shooting down the craft for several days, claiming that it was too dangerous to do over land. It was only after the balloon floated off the coast that President Joe Biden ordered it to be shot down.
The United States used F-22 fighter jets and downed the balloon using an AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile, according to the Pentagon, with a spokesperson later telling reporters that they had no doubt that the craft was used for surveillance.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed protest over the use of force and "the US attack on the civilian unmanned airship."
Chinese diplomat says US is the biggest spy power
The United States is the world's biggest spy power with the widest intelligence network, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Monday.
"It is the United States that is the world's biggest spy power with the world's widest intelligence network," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Wang Wenbin also noted that "the US National Security Agency reviews text messages and wiretaps phone calls, including those of high-ranking officials in Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and other European countries."
After years of war, residents of areas in northwest Syria struck by a massive earthquake are grappling with their new and worsening reality.
Almost one week after the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck northern Syria and neighboring Turkey, the United Nations has acknowledged an international failure to help Syrian quake victims.
In Atareb, a town that Syrian rebels still hold after years of fighting government troops, survivors dug through the debris of their homes Sunday, picking up the remnants of their shattered lives and looking for ways to heal after the latest in a series of humanitarian disasters to hit the war-battered area.
Excavators lifted rubble and residents with shovels and picks destroyed columns to even out a demolished building.
Dozens of newly displaced families gathered for hot meals from local volunteers and the local opposition-run government. A private citizen went tent to tent to give out wads of cash in a makeshift shelter — the equivalent of about $18 to each family.
Syrians were doing what they have honed over years of crises: relying on themselves to pick up the pieces and move on.
“We are licking our own wounds,” said Hekmat Hamoud, who had been displaced twice by Syria’s ongoing conflict before finding himself trapped for hours beneath rubble.
Syria’s northwestern rebel-held enclave, where over 4 million people for years have struggled to cope with ruthless airstrikes and rampant poverty, was hit hard by the Feb. 6 quake.
Many in the area were already displaced from the ongoing conflict and live in crowded tent settlements or buildings weakened by past bombings. The quake killed over 2,000 people in the enclave, and displaced many more for a second time, forcing some to sleep under olive groves in the frigid winter weather.
“l lost everything,” said father of two Fares Ahmed Abdo, 25, who survived the quake. But his new home and body shop where he fixed motorcycles for a living were destroyed. Once again with barely any shelter and no power nor toilets, he, his wife, two boys and ill mother are crammed in a small tent.
“I am waiting for any help,” he said.
Visiting the Turkish-Syrian border Sunday, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths acknowledged in a statement that Syrians have been left “looking for international help that hasn’t arrived.”
“We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria. They rightly feel abandoned,” he said. “My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can.”
Northwest Syria relies almost entirely on aid for survival, but post-quake international assistance has been slow to reach the area. The first U.N. convoy to reach the area from Turkey was on Thursday — three days after the earthquake.
Before that, the only cargo coming across the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkey-Syria border was a steady stream of bodies of earthquake victims coming home for burial — Syrian refugees who had fled the war in their country and settled in Turkey but perished in the quake.
The U.N. aid sent from Turkey to Syria is only authorized to enter via the Bab al-Hawa crossing, and logistics were complicated by pressure on the roads, many of them destroyed by the quake. While technically, international aid can also be sent from Syrian government-held areas to rebel-held areas in the northwest, that route brings its own set of hurdles and was at best a trickle.
Critics of the government of President Bashar Assad say aid funneled through government-held areas in Syria faces bureaucracy and the risk that authorities will misappropriate or divert the aid to support people close to the government.
A convoy carrying U.N. aid that was scheduled to cross Sunday into rebel-held Idlib from the government area was canceled after its entry was blocked by the the Qaida-affiliated rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which dominates the area. An administrative arm of the group said in a statement declined to receive assistance from government areas.
Strips of northern Syria are held by a patchwork of sometimes-conflicting groups, further hindering aid deliveries. Turkish-backed rebels have blocked aid convoys from reaching earthquake victims that were sent by rival U.S.-backed Kurdish groups in neighboring areas.
“We are trying to tell everyone, put politics aside. This is the time to unite behind the common effort to support the Syrian people,” said Geir Pedersen, the U.N. special envoy for Syria who landed in Damascus on Sunday.
At the United Nations, U.S. envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for an urgent U.S. Security Council vote to authorize the opening of additional cross-border passages into northwestern Syria.” People in the affected areas are counting on us,” she said in a statement. “They are appealing to our common humanity to help in their moment of need. We cannot let them down.”
While aid has been slow to reach the northwest, a number of countries that had cut ties with Damascus during Syria’s civil war have sent help to government areas. Arab countries including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have stepped in. UAE’s foreign minister visited Damascus and met with Assad on Sunday.
Raed al-Saleh, the head of the White Helmets, a civil defense group operating in the rebel-held northwest, said Griffiths’ visit was “too little, too late.” He said calls for international assistance by local rescue teams went unheeded for days “and during this time, countless lives have been needlessly lost.”
Al-Saleh met with Griffiths to demand the opening of additional cross-border routes for aid to enter without waiting for authorization from the U.N. Security Council.
Abdel-Haseeb Abdel-Raheem sifted through the rubble of his aunt’s destroyed four-story building in the town of Atareb in opposition-run northern Aleppo. He had pulled the bodies of his aunt and her husband from beneath the rubble hours after the quake. Now he went back to find any valuables, using his hands and dipping his body inside the skeleton of the destroyed building to pull out blankets and pillows, as well as some clothes.
The 34-year-old said he had no illusion that humanitarian assistance will solve his problems.
Syrian leader thanks Russia for assistance following earthquake
“We have no hope anymore,” he said.
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday expressed his gratitude to Russia’s government and people for assistance in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
"We are not surprised, we are all friends, and we share similar values. They supported Syria in the fight against terrorism, and they are supporting Syria in the wake of this disaster," the Syrian leader said.
"Therefore, we would like to express our gratitude not only to the Russian government, but to the Russians as well. Thank you very much," Assad added.
Terdakwa kasus pembunuhan berencana Brigadir Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat atau Brigadir J, Ferdy Sambo menjalani sidang pembacaan pleidoi atau nota pembelaan di Pengadilan Negeri Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta, Selasa, 24/01/2023. (KOMPAS.com/KRISTIANTO PURNOMO)
Majelis hakim Pengadilan Negeri (PN) Jakarta Selatan memutuskan hukuman pidana mati kepada mantan Kepala Divisi Propam Polri Ferdy Sambo. Hakim menilai Sambo terbukti melakukan tindak pidana pembunuhan berencana terhadap Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat alias Brigadir J.
"Menjatuhkan hukuman terdakwa dengan pidana mati," ujar ketua majelis hakim Wahyu Iman Santoso saat membacakan amar putusan di PN Jakarta Selatan, pada hari Senin,13/02/2023.
Selain itu,Fredy Sambo juga dinilai terbukti melakukan obstruction of justice atau perintangan penyidikan pembunuhan Brigadir J.
Dalam menjatuhkan putusan, hakim turut mempertimbangkan sejumlah keadaan memberatkan dan meringankan untuk Sambo. Hal memberatkan Sambo di antaranya telah mencoreng institusi Polri di mata Indonesia dan dunia. Selain itu, ia dinilai berbelit-belit dan tidak mengakui perbuatannya.
Sementara itu tidak ada hal meringankan bagi Sambo.
Putusan terhadap Ferdy Sambo ini lebih berat dibanting tuntutan jaksa. Sebelumnya, jaksa menuntut agar Ferdy Sambo dihukum penjara seumur hidup. Jaksa meyakini Ferdy Sambo bersalah dalam kasus pembunuhan berencana terhadap Brigadir J dan obstruction of justice kasus Brigadir J.
Ada sejumlah hal yang memberatkan Ferdy Sambo yang menjadi pertimbangan jaksa dalam menyusun tuntutan. Beberapa di antaranya yakni ulah Sambo tidak pantas dilakukan mengingat posisinya sebagai penegak hukum serta merusak nama baik Polri.
Selain itu, ulah Sambo juga membuat hilangnya nyawa orang yakni Brigadir J serta membawa duka ke keluarga korban. Sambo juga dinilai memberikan keterangan secara berbelit-belit serta tidak mengakui perbuatannya selama rangkaian persidangan.
Tindak pidana itu turut melibatkan Putri Candrawathi, Richard Eliezer Pudihang Lumiu atau Bharada E, Ricky Rizal atau Bripka RR dan Kuat Ma'ruf.
Putri Candrawathi adalah istri dari Sambo. Sementara itu baik Bripka RR, Bharada E, maupun Brigadir J adalah ajudan Sambo kala menjabat Kadiv Propam Polri. Lalu Kuat Ma'ruf adalah sopir keluarga Sambo.
Pembunuhan terhadap Yosua terjadi pada Jumat, 8 Juli 2022 di rumah dinas Sambo nomor 46 di Kompleks Polri, Duren Tiga, Jakarta Selatan. Richard dan Sambo disebut menembak Yosua.
Latar belakang pembunuhan diduga karena Putri telah dilecehkan Yosua saat berada di Magelang, Jawa Tengah pada Kamis, 7 Juli 2022. Dugaan ini telah dibantah oleh pihak keluarga Yosua.
Sebelumnya, jaksa penuntut umum menuntut agar Sambo dijatuhi pidana penjara seumur hidup.
Dalam kasus ini, eks Kadiv Propam Polri itu menjadi terdakwa bersama istrinya, Putri Candrawathi dan dua ajudannya Richard Eliezer atau Bharada E serta Ricky Rizal atau Bripka RR.
Selain itu, seorang asisten rumah tangga (ART) sekaligus sopir keluarga Ferdy Sambo, Kuat Ma’ruf juga turut menjadi terdakwa dalam kasus ini.
Jaksa menilai tidak ada alasan pemaaf maupun pembenar atas perbuatan yang dilakukan Sambo. Jaksa menyatakan Sambo harus mempertanggungjawabkan perbuatannya.
"Terdakwa Ferdy Sambo dapat dimintai pertanggungjawaban pidana," ucap jaksa.
Eks anggota Polri dengan pangkat terakhir jenderal bintang dua itu dinilai telah melanggar Pasal 340 Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana (KUHP) juncto Pasal 55 Ayat (1) ke 1 KUHP.
Ferdy Sambo juga terbukti terlibat obstruction of justice atau perintangan penyidikan terkait pengusutan kasus kematian Brigadir J. Ia terbukti melanggar Pasal 49 UU ITE juncto Pasal 55 KUHP.
The US military is recruiting jihadist fighters to carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia and the CIS countries, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a statement.
"According to credible data received by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia, the US military is actively recruiting militants from jihadist groups affiliated with the Daesh* and Al-Qaeda* to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia and the CIS countries. Particular attention is paid to attracting people from the Russian North Caucasus and Central Asia to cooperation," the SVR said in a statement.
In January, the United States recruited 60 militants, the statement said, adding that after training at the US' Al-Tanf military base in Syria, they are planned to be sent to Russia and other CIS countries to carry out terrorist attacks against diplomats and security officials.
US security agencies, obsessed with the "crazy idea of exsanguinating Russia," consider it acceptable to use terrorists for their own purposes, SVR said.
"We see a definitive loss of any moral principles in the US security services. Obsessed with the insane idea of "exsanguinating" Russia, Washington's strategists consider it acceptable to use terrorists directly for their own dirty purposes. Such actions put Washington on a par with major international terrorist groups," the release said.
Chechen leader explains when Russian borders will change
Western hopes that Russia will be divided into smaller states are in vain as only Moscow can decide on the location of the country’s borders, the leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has said.
“As for the break-up of Russia, such attempts have been made by the West since the 1990s,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram on Sunday.
“Russian borders change only when it wants this itself,” the Chechen leader said
Kadyrov noted that he was writing in response to an “overconfident expert” from Ukraine who predicted that Russia would break up into several parts.
The ‘expert’ in question was most likely Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, who claimed on Saturday that Russia is a colonial state that will soon split up.
“There will be free Ichkeria [the name given to Chechnya by the separatists in the 1900s], Tatarstan, Dagestan. It will happen in the near future, and we need to prepare for this and not pretend that if they [Russia] have nuclear weapons, this won’t happen,” Danilov said.
Russia’s borders recently changed after the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions voted overwhelmingly in referendums last autumn to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
Earlier this week, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh wrote an investigative piece describing in detail how US deep-water divers had planted explosives under three Nord Stream pipelines during the NATO Baltops drills last summer. The explosives were detonated remotely on September 26, 2022, at the order of President Joe Biden, Hersh wrote.
Officials in the United States admit that they were behind the explosions at the Nord Stream pipeline, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday.
"Now they even enjoy talking about it," the foreign minister said, adding that the US sabotaged the Russian pipeline in order to destroy a powerful alliance based on Russian energy resources and German technology that began to threaten the monopoly of many American corporations.
Lavrov's comments come on the heels of a bombshell revelation by Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh, who wrote an investigative piece earlier this week into the gas pipeline explosions. Based on information from sources, the journalist wrote that during the NATO Baltops exercise in the summer of 2022, US Navy divers planted explosives under the Nord Stream pipelines, which were detonated three months later at the order of US President Joe Biden. According to Hersh, Biden decided to sabotage Nord Stream after more than nine months of secret discussions with the national security team.
Hersh also cited a source with direct knowledge of the US operational planning as saying that Norway played a key role in helping the United States organize the attack and keep the Swedish and Danish navies in the dark. The Pentagon has denied responsibility for the blasts.
Sputnik has analyzed Flightradar24 data showing that US and German navy aircraft regularly circled over the sites of future explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines during the NATO Baltops 22 exercise last summer.
Between June 8 and June 16, 2022, German and US maritime surveillance aircraft P-3 Orion and P-8 Poseidon carried out regular flights over the sites of future Nord Stream blasts. The military aircraft descended to low altitudes and turned off transponders in almost every flight, so some of their trajectories remained unrecorded.
On June 8, the American Poseidon aircraft circled over the sites of three future explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines northeast of Bornholm Island. The German P-3 Orion aircraft then flew over a future blast site east of the island. On June 9, the Poseidon aircraft flew over the sites northeast and east of Bornholm.
From June 11 to June 15, the US Poseidon aircraft circled precisely over the sites of future Nord Stream sabotage acts every day, often making many turns and loops at low altitude. On June 16, the German P-3 Orion flew over the area. The minimum flight altitude of US and German military aircraft over the Baltic Sea around the location of the gas pipelines was less than 600 meters (0.4 miles). However, it could have been even lower in those parts of the flights that were not recorded by the open monitoring system.
Late last month, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland hailed the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, saying that "the [US] administration is very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out that Nuland's words were "proof of the Biden administration’s approval of the terrorist attack that destroyed civilian infrastructure, as well as evidence of Washington’s motive for undermining global energy security."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for his part, described the pipeline explosions as a “tremendous opportunity,” which would enable EU nations to become less dependent on Russian energy.
The blasts occurred on September 26, 2022 at three of the four strings of Nord Stream 1 and 2 underwater pipelines built to carry a combined 110 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe annually. The incidents halted gas deliveries to Germany ahead of the cold season, prompting a gas price hike and a scramble for alternative sources in the European Union. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden launched separate investigations into the sabotage, with German media reporting trust issues among the three EU nations. The Russian chief prosecutor's office said it had opened an inquiry into possible international terrorism.
